New takes on dry stone walls

Dry stone wall in England

A musician acquaintance has written some music and painted scenes to celebrate a very long (22 miles) dry stone wall in northern England. I never thought of walls and music together, but these are exceptionally poignant. "Wall to Wall" is the name of an exhibition of music and paintings by Martin Matthews. On his website, the paintings are accompanied by a couple of music tracks by himself playing northern-style tunes on the banjo that can be run while gazing at the picture. What a delight!

Dry stone walls are a feature of the English countryside. Once they are built, they tend to stay put forever for two reasons. Because dry stone walls are a product of clearing rocky ground that cannot be farmed, they tend to enclose pasture for sheep. Unlike fertile crop fields surrounded by hedgerows, stone walls are not destroyed to enlarge the fields; hundreds of miles of hedgerows have been lost to such "efficiency" enlargements.

Secondly, it takes a long process of natural invasion by plant life to deconstruct a well built wall; and then one is left with a pile of rocks in the landscape instead. It is sobering to think that most of the 250,000 miles of dry stone walls in Britain are at least 200 years old, and some date back to the Neolithic, 5500 years ago.

So now you've read this far thinking, "what is a dry stone wall?". A very complicated structure indeed that takes knowledge to build and to maintain. The Guardian ran an article on dry stone walling where an expert explains exactly how to build one. It is one of the traditional crafts of the countryside, along with roof thatching, hedge laying, blacksmithing, stonemasonry – what The Guardian calls "disappearing acts". The video accompanying the article has drawn a number of interesting comments. You can learn a lot from these resources and even find out how to attend courses and become a dry waller.

In closing, take a look at this new version of a dry stone wall. Now, if this isn't ingenious, I don't know what is!

New-style dry stone wall for a bike shed in Cambridge

Quilted piano covers

Quilting is a big thing in America: there are tons of women who pride themselves on carrying on the colonial tradition, with books documenting favoured patterns and stiches over time. The Shakers had a famous quilting tradition, in line with their use of natural materials and hand-worked items. My mother had a friend who collected swatches of cloth and embroidered signatures from all her adulthood friends and sewed them into a scrapbook quilt. But I wasn't prepared to encounter two quilted piano covers in quite different settings in England. I had never seen anything like them.

Upright piano quilt in Gainford Village Hall, County Durham

The first was a cover for an upright piano, standing in the Gainford village hall west of Darlington. It was an imaginative use of panels to replicate the music scores usually found standing on the piano as well as the keys. What fun!

The second was a cover for a baby grand piano in The Maltings, in Farnham, Surrey. This one had its origins embroidered onto the side, and music was represented in some of the patches.

Baby grand piano quilt in The Maltings, Farnham, Surrey

Cate Blanchett at the Barbican

This is the story of a woman with two vices: she is a slave to words – loves to talk but has no one to talk to, and she loves to help people – but no one wants her help. These cost her her marriage. We first meet her on a holiday in Marrakesh, alone, not joining in on any activities, only eavesdropping on the “amazing” voices she hears on the terrace. Back home, she is thrown out of her home to wander among people searching for a soul she can talk to and help, all in vain.

The story is a splendid vehicle for Cate Blanchett to showcase her talents: not only in her range of voice and vocal expression, her communicative facial expressions, but her body language which documents her increasing psychosis as she is rejected by one person after another – fellow tenants, primary school friend, pick-up lover and long-lost brother. But the interesting thing is that these people and others along the way (including an absolutely ingenious pup tent as a character) are equally weird in their own manner, making one reassess just who is normal in this psychological thriller.

The staging for this play was minimal, with one or two props per scene. Sitting in the upper circle gave an added perspective, for though one had to use binoculars to see Cate’s face, her body was projected against the black box of the stage as an insect under the microscope. It was like watching an ant in an increasingly frantic death dance, as Cate minced and flailed across the stage like Jack Black – a puppet on a string. (Ok, so you didn’t see the Orange ad for Black’s appearance in “Gulliver’s Travels”…)

One wonders about the title. A line from Cate’s character Lotte in the play may give a hint: she feels her husband is out to make her “small”, implying he is a “big” journalist. The Barbican press release casts her as an Alice in Wonderland, “sometimes Lotte is too big for her surroundings and sometimes too small to be noticed within them.” But I prefer to think of the details of life overwhelming Cate as the ‘small’, while the ‘large’ is the existential angst of us all trying to find our place in the world. To which Lotte would say, “Oh, what big words, Amazing!”.

The audience for this play on a Sunday afternoon was astonishingly male, probably 70-80%, all coming to see Cate on a off-work day. They gave her many ululations and a standing ovation for what was surely an outstanding performance. Well done, Cate!

“Gross und Klein” by Botho Strauss, in English translation by Martin Crimp, produced by the Sydney Theatre Company, directed by Luc Bondy. At the Barbican through April 29th.

Store signs that make you laugh

I really enjoy thoughtful signs. Somebody put a lot of thought into these two:

Logo of a fish pedicure shop

Are they really closing down? They've dropped their trousers regardless...

More Chainsaw Art at Thornley Woods

Frog meets snake

Back in October, I wrote about a visit to Thornley Woods, west of Newcastle, where a chainsaw artist had just finished carving a series of sculptures into rooted, standing dead trees. For some reason, this has become my second-most searched for blog! People like chainsaw art? Is it the macho aspect that appeals? The reuse of natural materials? The proletarian art movement? 

Comments, please...

Meanwhile, I'll mount some more photos taken that day of Tommy Cragg's creations. Which ones do you like best in these two blogs? Why? 

Owl

Centipede?

Beetle 1

Beetle 2

gleeb goes to Toronto: 'Visit Britain' posters

The last things I expected to see when arriving In Toronto were "Visit Britain" posters plastered everywhere on the subway. And they didn't even mention the Olympics! I thought that was very strange, given this time of year.

Except for the pictures, you might not even know the posters were for Great Britain, as the word Britain is sooooo small. And nowhere is mentioned, to the naked eye (you would need a magnifying glass to see it from across the subway track), that these are actually ads from United Airlines. I didn't know that until we boarded our United flight, and there, in the on-board magazine, were replicas of this ad.

I think, too, that countryside, culture and heritage are great, in whatever country. But indeed, Britain does have an excess. So come visit!

Fantastic Ceramics Japanese Style – by Jill Fanshawe Kato

If you go in to any of the 450 Japanese restaurants in London, you might well come face-to-face with ceramics by Jill Fanshawe Kato. The Tsurukame on Gray's Inn Road have these lovely pitchers on display sitting on a piano, while the counter at Blossom in City Point, near Moorgate tube station, supports a huge, globular narrow-necked jar by Jill.

Stoneware pitchers by Jill Fanshawe Kato.
The bamboo are in another vase behind!

These are advertisements for Jill's work, which can be seen in galleries across southern England as well as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Cardiff. Inspired by Japanese ceramics and by nature, her creations are wonderful statements in swaths of colour, bold shapes, and naturalistic images. I particularly like the pitcher shown on the right here, with a jay painted in a white oval. The pouring spout of the pitcher mirrors the bill of the jay, both facing upwards to the left in optimistic expectation.

Having taught ceramics at Goldsmiths College, University of London for several years, Jill now does workshops open to all in Devon. Her new schedule is:

2012 Pottery courses at Coombe Farm Studios near Dartmouth, Devon. www.coombefarmstudios.com
May 21-25	'Inspired by Nature'
September 14-16	'Creative Clay'

Jill also does special exhibitions and commissions across the globe. Her work challenges the more subtle Hamada school of stoneware carried on by the Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall. More colourful and more playful than the Hamada tradition, Jill's ceramics are conversation pieces as well as utilitarian items. Really interested persons can make a special appointment to see Jill in her London studio; see her website for info.

The Hajj exhibition at the British Musem

One of the perks of being a Friend of the British Museum is getting to see special exhibitions for free. We took advantage of this to see the current exhibition on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). It was a great exhibition in many ways: lots of panel explanations to set items in historical context, both objects and documents on exhibit, testimonials from British people who have accomplished the Hajj, and an interesting geographical approach that led one through the main pilgrimage routes to Mecca – from the rest of Arabia and the Middle East, from eastern Eurasia/Indonesia, and of course Britain.

I was particularly impressed by the aerial photographs and aerial video of Al Haram, the "mosque" containing the Kaaba, the holiest shrine of Islam. First, contrary to our usual visual impressions of mosques, this one is a huge flat building surrounding an open courtyard in whose center sits the Kaaba. Second, circumambulation (7 times counter-clockwise) takes place not only in the courtyard around the Kaaba but on the flat roofed building surrounding it. Third, the video does time-lapse photography that shows circumambulation as a galactic spiral, much like the opening part of the YouTube video of a new vision for Al Haram in 2020.

However, visiting this exhibit in particular, I realize the dire need for a new dedicated temporary exhibition room at the British Museum. The current ones are held in the old Reading Room of the Museum, under the central dome. The walls are still lined with leather-bound books from floor to ceiling, but for the Hajj exhibition an internal wall was built in front of the library wall. This meant that upon entry, one had to squeeze along a passageway between the books and that internal wall before making one's way up an temporary internal staircase to access the elevated exhibit floor. All very jury-rigged and artificial. But once there, the Reading Room dome made for an appropriate ceiling, giving the feeling one was in a mosque oneself.

British Museum extension work on Montague Place with
construction site office placed over the street!

The new exhibit room is in the making! At the northwest corner of the Museum, construction is going on that will provide temporary exhibition space in a dedicated room, together with multitudes of space for artefact conservation and scientific analyses, object storage and study rooms, as well as biodiversity and sustainability (i.e. plants on the roof). You can follow the construction (due to be completed at the end of 2013) on the BM's* New Centre website.

* As an American, I always have trouble referring to the British Museum by its initials. But that's the way it's done here! Sorry, folks....

Wyvern Street Art

This is not graffiti! It is the logo of the Wyvern Bindery painted on the shop shutters. The only way you will see it is to visit the bindery when it is closed! When open, the shop can be identified by its shop sign exhibiting equivalent talent.

Hand-made sign, hand-painted logo – a real labor of love and entrepeneurship characteristic of old Clerkenwell Road, London. It is here that watchmakers and printers made Clerkenwell famous, and now the area is the "largest media hub in Europe with, arguably, the greatest concentration of architects' and designers' offices in the world", according to Spotlight on Clerkenwell.

I was so curious as to what lay behind this shop shutter that I went in today. Blimey! It was like stepping into the past. Stacks of paper, rolls of leather, patterned inner binding, spools of binding ribbon, bound and unbound books on every surface, and in prime location, three old screw compression book presses. I thought the shop might date from the 1800s, but in fact, it has been in business only 21 years. On the shelf behind the till were rows of reference books, including one on "Japanese Bookbinding" (Weatherhill, 1986). Serious craftspeople, here.

If anyone needs their dissertation bound, they do it in two days. Much more fun to go there to have it done than at austere and sterile Prontaprint or the likes.

Rubens as Street Art

Wandering around Farringdon Station in London, as I am wont to do, I was stunned to see a Rubens hanging on the outside wall of a building facing a car park! It certainly caught my eye, which is exactly what the company who put it there intended: The Partners, an award-winning "branding agency". Oh no, I've been taken in by advertising!

Probably to the dismay of companies wanting my business, I assiduously avoid reading advertisements in print, on screen, on billboards. But I am a hunter-gatherer by nature: I shop to see what's available and where everything can be got if needed. The H&G mantra: know your resources.

So, because the Rubens (his painting of Samson & Delilah) wasn't direct advertising, it got my curiosity up and I investigated. This painting was one of many placed around town during the Grand Tour set up by The Partners. It is part of "a collection of priceless paintings from the National Gallery set free around the streets of Britain. Originally on show in London for 12 weeks in 2007, it is now touring other British cities" says the signboard.

Undoubtedly, this was not the real painting from the National Gallery but a copy. Nevertheless, it was an interesting idea for bringing art to the public. And of course, interesting ideas are the mainstay of The Partners advertising business. The building shown happens to be the Smithfield branch of The Partners, in Albion Courtyard. Unfortunately, there was no indication where other paintings might be located. Have you seen one in your city?

Gog & Magog sculptures and walk

Gog and Magog are names from the Bible, specifically interpreted as a king and his kingdom, respectively. But as Christianity infiltrated Albion (the Isle of Britain), it appears that they became one person Gogmagog, leader of the giants overthrown by Brutus of Troy, according to legend.

Later, it appears the word split to refer to two people: Gog, the giant, and Magog, the Trojan warrior Corineus who killed the giant.  Gog and Magog are now feted as the traditional guardians of the City of London, where their postwar wooden sculptures, in Roman uniform, watch over the Guildhall interior.

Many fascinating legends and details surround these two, but here let's talk about tangible things. First, the original 14-foot guardians of Gog and Magog were made of "wickerwork and pasteboard" which lasted about 400 years before deterioriating. Two rounds of wooden sculptures have replaced them, but in 2006, new 14-foot wicker statues were created to showcase in the Lord Mayor's parade. After one parade three or four years ago, the statues were displayed in the Royal National Hotel lobby; otherwise they are kept at the Guildhall between parades. The wicker statues can next be seen in the Lord Mayor's Procession on Saturday, 10 November 2012.

The wicker-work Gog & Magog statues
for the Lord Mayor's Procession
(Courtesy of the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers)

But a different sort of Gog and Magog exist outside Cambridge. South of the city are the only hills visible for miles (the Urals in one direction!). About 70m in elevation, they tower over the flat fenlands. These are the Gog Magog Hills. It is possible they were named for legendary giants sleeping beneath them.

I recall the Gog Magog Hills now because they were the site of several wonderful walks, one at Christmastime, when living in Cambridge. They provided refuge from the flatness of Cambridge in the wooded uplands, gaining a good view over the plains. So this mountain-loving girl took solace in the Gog Magogs, unnecessary now living in a more topographically interesting place.

Turner Prize nominations: art at the BALTIC, Gateshead

It is only the second time that the exhibition of works for the Turner Prize artist nominations has been held outside London: this year in Gateshead – across the Tyne River from Newcastle in northeastern England. The venue is the BALTIC, a converted flour mill silo (which deserves another blog on its own). A friend and I went to view the work of the four nominated artists; the exhibition runs from 21 October 2011 to 8 January 2012, but the Prize will be announced next Monday, December 5th, so we were glad to be able to form our own opinions before being told what is best!

Each artist had one exhibit room for their installation. We wrote off two after puzzling over the work:  Hilary Lloyd's non-sensical video presentations which made me feel seasick, and Karen Black's crumpled paper and plastic bag creations in pastel colours (though I must admit that walking behind the crumpled paper "waterfall", as I interpreted it, was kind of neat).

We disagreed on who should win the Prize. My friend went for Martin Boyce's sculpture installation which included a ceiling of vertical plastic fins representing tree leaves, with oiled paper leaf cutouts scattered across the floor; a wall-mounted panel of seemingly poured concrete with the wood-grain mould pattern overlaid by scattered alphabet-like letters; half a library table top carved with similar letters and mounted on a metal frame of odd angles that was twice as big as the wood table top; wall heating vents that used patterns resembling the letters in their grills; and an obliquely tilted red rubbish bin with torn flannel liner. All these things were interesting in themselves, but a BALTIC Crew member had to explain how they hung together: representing a park with indoor items (the table) placed outside. Fine, but when I have to have a work explained to me, I feel that the artist hasn't got his message across very successfully.

I chose the paintings of George Shaw, all small (ca. 30x40cm) and mounted in traditional form around the room walls. These were done with enamel paints, more often used on model cars, and many were somber bordering on dark. His topics were the mundane aspects of his childhood neighbourhood, both remembered, recreated, and in transition to their current state. None included people, but the manner of painting – flat, fairly solid colours – reminded me of Edward Hopper's work and some were equally "bleak", a word Shaw himself used in his interview video. What struck me was the differential effort put into the detail of the pictures: in the painting "New Houses", a row of orangey coloured tract houses on the horizon were backed by indistinct trees, but the entire foreground was a field fenced off for further development. While the houses were painted without architectural detail, great attention was paid to the field's mudpuddles and drying clay, diverting our focus to things we would probably overlook and discount in our daily life.

So, we await the announcement of the Turner Prize on December 5th with hope and trepidation! Go see, to make your own choices...

Unintentional Street Art in London

Several roads around London are being repaved at the height of the leaf-drop season. What you get, then, is unintended street art where autumn leaves have been pressed into the new tarmac/asphalt/macadam (but not pavement – which is a sidewalk) by traffic or even by the street paving roller. These are unexpected and beautiful additions to the capital's streets, but how long will they last?
   In the above photo, you can see three leaves in the lower lefthand corner which have fallen since re-paving. They will be crushed and dispersed soon by the traffic, wind and rain. But let's see how long the impressed patterns last. This photo was taken on Marchmont Street, Bloomsbury – near the North Sea Fish Restaurant. I have seen other leaf impressions on the Strand near Aldwich, with the impressed patterns standing in stark contrast to older grey tarmac. Where else, anybody?

Spotting Wild Animals

Speaking of animal-spotting, we had an extraordinary encounter with a Chinese water deer at a nature reserve in Lincolnshire last weekend. It was supposed to be an RSPB birding trip, but one of the first things we saw was this animal streaking through the coastal scrub straight towards us, then veering off and jumping down into a river. The thing looked like a barrel on short legs, scrambling through the brush like a rabbit more than a deer. You could see its fangs (unique to water deer), which made its snout kind of stubby-looking, like a pig. Someone said it was probably pregnant, it was so rotund.

The fauna book in the nature reserve library said it was an escapee ornamental import, only present in two counties when the book was published in 1964. But since then, it has obviously spread wider across the country. Interestingly, the next deer named in the book was the muntjac, also a Chinese import. I saw one once in a Cambridge college garden, fading into the hedge. The Chinese water deer is only 60cm high at the shoulder, and the muntjac is even smaller. What interesting wildlife can be seen in England if you're lucky.

A Frontier Airlines wood-duck tail

Then recently I passed through Denver (Colorado, not Denver of the Denver sluice in Norfolk), the hub for Frontier Airlines. Taking a page from the book I reported on earlier (Animal London: a Spotter's Guide), I spotted wild animals in art form. Frontier has painted a different animal on each of its airplanes' tails.

An exhibition in the Denver International Airport (DIA) terminal bridge just happened to have a presentation on the creativity of Denver and Colorado, allegedly the 5th most creative place in the US. Well, Frontier shows this spirit. I like the animals because they are humorous, unpretentious, and entertaining -- not like the pompous logos of many other airlines. Also, they bring the wild into daily life, reminding us that we are not alone in the world but there are others we must take care of.

More Frontier tails: from left, raccoon, bobcat, mountain lion and ?ermine

Chainsaw Art at Thornley Woods nr Newcastle

Thornley woodpecker

Otter from a tree stump

This past Sunday was a glorious autumn day, so we decided to go for a walk and hit on Thornley Woods near Newcastle. Never been before, but we happened to arrive after Tommy Cragg had just finished his series of chainsaw sculptures on dead trees along the trails leading away from the Thornley Woods information centre. Dead fascinating!

Red kite from a
tree stump

Rabbit at Thornley Woods

It turns out that Tommy Cragg, based near Consett, is well-known on the international chainsaw art

circuit, having competed in the Chainsaw Carving day at Chetwynd, BC in June 2011, winning overall Third Prize. And he won the 2008 APF Chainsaw Carving Competition sponsored by Echo in Cannock Chase, Staffordshire.  His works adorn several venues around England; see his Gallery for the enormous range of artwork he does and where those works are located.  I must say, we were impressed; the artistry is astounding. And the fact that these sculptures are all on trees that are still rooted mean they will remain to be enjoyed many years. If you are interested in how these sculptures are done, see the 4 videos on YouTube of the Chetwynd competition.
   In addition to seeing Cragg's Red Kite, we also saw two red kites in the air, two dippers in the stream, and a grey heron (Ardea cinerea), relative of the North American great blue heron (Ardea herodias). The red kites are a real treat, as they have been reintroduced to England and are now thriving. On the wing, they are one of the most beautiful birds, flashing red, black and white in the sun.

British Museum gallery talks

The British Museum has an excellent programme of free lunchtime gallery talks (1.15-1.45) and other free lectures, often given by curators at the museum itself or by outside specialists. I attended one gallery talk recently on Chinese glazes by Nigel Wood, an expert on Chinese ceramic technology. It was excellent, covering both the changing pottery styles through Chinese history and the chemistry of the glazes in a nutshell. Instead of looking at slides in a lecture hall, these talks take place in the museum galleries themselves, and the lecturer moves among the cases talking about items therein. This is a most informative way to study when in a small group; and if the group is large, there are earphone amplifiers so that one can hear what's being said in the middle of the crowd. Regular visitors to the galleries drift in and out on the sidelines without being disruptive. But do make sure you know where the gallery is to get there on time because it is a spatially complicated museum! No need to book, just show up...

Yesterday I attended a talk in the Korea Foundation Gallery at the BM (sorry, that's what it's called here), where a guest curator from the Seoul National Museum was scheduled to talk about the new Korean materials there on loan from SNM or bought with funds donated by the Hahn Cultural Foundation. To my chagrin, however, the talk was given in Korean! There were only two people in attendance, myself and a Korean intern at the museum. My Korean isn't that good, and I only understood a little of what was said, but I thought, What a shame that the lecture wasn't in English to appeal to the more adventurous British and tourist public. Wouldn't the Korea Foundation want their gallery widely known? The gallery is well worth visiting, currently having Silla stoneware, and gold and beads from the Kyongju tombs in one case and Kaya iron armour for both men and horse in another. These are on short-term loan from SNM and will eventually be returned to Korea. The permanent exhibit contains ceramics of several ages including celedons, porcelains and punchong ware. Inlaid lacquer and metal works as well as an iron Buddha are also on display.

To see more about the Korea Gallery and Hahn Cultural Foundation:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries/asia/room_67_korea.aspx
http://www.hjmuseum.com/eng_group/intro/founder.asp

Check out future activities and events at the British Museum at:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calendar.aspx