Yorkshire Sculpture Park (some of it)

Good morning. It's a good job I went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park yesterday, as that nasty wet stuff is coming down today, and it's blowing around a bit. So, I am going to split this topic into two posts because it's taking a while to upload all the photo's, as usual I have taken lots. Yes, the park is free to enter, free to look round all the exhibits inside and out, free to walk round all 500 acres should you wish to do so, but there is a £5 per car parking charge, except that this old biddy doesn't pay for parking. No no no, I am a pensioner, let the rich folk pay. I found a free parking place on the other side of the motorway, under the railway arch, about half a mile along on the road to Woolley Edge. Have legs will walk :o)

They very kindly give out free maps when you go in, this is very usefull to plan your walk. I didn't enter at the main entrance, but a little further along at the Coffee Shop which is only open at weekends and Bank Holidays. However there are picnic tables to use if you have brought your own. I had a bite of my sandwich and a drink first.

The leaflet is full of info to help you find the bits you want to see. It has details of the current exhibitions, and the permanent static outdoor ones as well. First I headed for the Chapel.

This is the banner advertising this exhibition

And this is it inside the chapel. You enter the large room through a black curtain. Inside it is dark except for a very large screen, carefull not to stumble over the benches. I sat down and started watching, wondering what was going to happen next. I blinked and nothing happened, I seemed to be watching a very nice picture of a woodland scene. 

After a few minutes I was thinking about leaving, I didn't have time to sit around all day if nothing was going to happen. Just how long am I expected to sit here. I wondered if I was missing the point, so I stared at the screen a while longer, but then something magical happened, and I started to understand what it was all about. The picture was changing very very slowly. There is no sound, you need to watch in total silence. I was on my own for a while and I was completely moved to tears by the beautiful scenes which unfolded before my eyes. This snapshot is just one of 18,000 photographs, yes eighteen thousand, which were fused together by the artist Jem Finer. The film goes through all the seasons, night time as well, the camera never moves, it is fixed in a tree.  

I sat for about half an hour or more, completely mesmerized as if in a hypnotic state. People came and went, they didn't get it, they missed out on a beautiful experience. The film goes through all the seasons in very slow motion, so slow it is hard to detect the changes. People appear then disappear, deer enter the scene and fade away again. You think there is not much going on but as you watch you see the gift of changes that mother nature rewards us with. 

Check out the Sculpture Park web site for more information of this stunning artwork. To experience the full pleasure of it you have to see it live, however. It is here untill May, so look out for it advertised in other art galleries after that. 

http://www.ysp.co.uk/exhibitions/jem-finer-still

Out into the fresh air again, this is the Archway Lodge near the main entrance. There is no vehicle access through here, except for agricultural vehicles. Parking for staff is through the main entrance and round the back.  

The walk towards the main auditorium and shopping centre/cafe is over this iron footpath, which has thousands of names cut into the metal. I guess they must be sponsors as the park is a registered charity.

This current exhibition is by Donna Wilson, entitled Endangered Species. If you google her name she makes loads of stuff for the home in her quirky designs. Here we have a world of knitted trees and curiosities.

Back outside again and here are just a few of the many exhibits you see as you walk around the park. 

Jonathan Borofsky is the artist who created Molecule Man.

I like the way these clay pipes have been assembled to create an interesting feature alongside the path.

It's lunch time, I'm off for a bite to eat, plenty to go at in my kitchen. Catch you later.