On my way up the country to a family holiday in Cumbria we stopped off at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. This was planned as a stop over in the long trip from Kent, but gave me a good opportunity to take in some art along the way. There was a great deal to see, and if you’ve never visited and get the chance plan to spend a while there if you can. The following outline a few highlights of this trip. This write up is bereft of images as I have no idea on the copyright issues of including them. I have, however, included links that are worth following for images and more information.
Tony Cragg
What I didn’t realise until after the event was that one of the artists that my tutor has suggested I have a closer look at was being showcased. The YSP exhibition for Tony Cragg, called “A Rare Category of Objects” drew quite a bit of attention from myself and my family. I was particularly drawn to POINTS OF VIEW, which consists of 3 columns which at first sight look like fairly randomly off centre disks stacked vertically. As you change view point by walking around them the possibilities shift with your viewpoint. From some perspectives the profiles are reminiscent of face profiles, which seems to have been intentional based on the artistic commentaries.
To view some photographs of the exhibition objects, along with commentary, the following links are useful:
- Sculpture Nature:
http://www.sculpturenature.com/en/tony-cragg-a-rare-category-of-objects-at-yorkshire-sculpture-park/ - YSP:
https://www.ysp.co.uk/exhibitions/tony-cragg-a-rare-category-of-objects - Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/9503576/Tony-Cragg-Sculptor-who-looks-beneath-the-surface.html - Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jul/22/tony-cragg-sculpture-scottish-national
Unfortunately, I missed the exhibition in the inside galleries – which on reading about it afterwards might also have been valuable. I’m really not sure how to comment on this work. I like some of it (especially the Points of View mentioned above), but not others. I couldn’t claim to really understand any of it, despite the fascinating shifts and patterns in the work. Maybe that is, in itself, part of the meaning of the body of work. That is certainly the viewpoint implicit in some of the commentaries above.
I particularly like the following quote, included in the Telegraph article:
“We perceive the world through light reflected on surfaces,” Cragg says. “We develop a fantastic ability to read these surfaces and what lies behind them. And these surfaces are always the product of a function. There’s a reason things look the way they do – a value to everything. But if you shift these relationships just a bit, put another emphasis on them, new meanings come out of it.”
Jaume Plensa: Wilsis, 2016
https://www.ysp.co.uk/exhibitions/jaume-plensa
This sculpture is fascinating as a trickery of viewpoint and perspective. The piece is tall and wide but relatively thin. From the front and back, however, it seems to be a full 3D sculpture of a lady’s head. Although this isn’t the first time I’ve come across this sort of visual illusion it is one of the most accomplished. This is partially for the sheer scale of it, and partially for the quality of the illusion from even a relatively short distance.
Zak Ové. Black and Blue
This installation also deserves a special mention, as it had a definite fascination to it. The installation is a set of figures made and installed across a patch of field. The installation reminds me in some ways of the concept of the Terracotta Army, but each figure is the same. I suspect there is much more background to the installation, as indicated in some commentary – such as this: http://1-54.com/london/victorious-invisible-men-visiting-zak-oves-studio/ Even just taking the work at face value, however, it is a powerful array of items that are interesting to view.
So, what have I learnt?
I’m beginning to understand that my search for meaning in sculpture (and art in general) is somewhat misdirected. When viewing some works the meaning is in its references and ideas – sometimes symbolism. This comes through, for example, in Grayson Perry’s Vanity of Small Differences. In other work the meaning is embedded in the reaction of the viewer to the work, whether that reaction is positive or otherwise. Amongst others United Defence fits into this category. For others, the meaning is in the act of creation and the use of the materials, which is true of much of Abstract Expressionism. There is also the possibility of meaning as in a Spiritual connection, as evoked by Kandinsky.
So why is my search misdirected? It is because I have been looking for the meaning encoded into the work by the maker. This is relevant, but the meaning found in the work by the observer is as important. These may, or may not, be aligned. The meaning in art is not like a piece of marketing communication: encoded and universally decoded correctly or else the work has failed.
David Howard, OCA Drawing 1 
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