The Bunker - "Sculptures in the Close" exhibition Jesus College Cambridge

Wednesday 13 September 2017

The work of Mona Hatoum is marked by the condition of exile from the Beirut where she was born and brought up as a member of a Palestinian family itself already in exile from its country of origin. She was in London in 1975 during the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war and has been based largely in the UK for the subsequent forty years. Her work Bunker (2011) consists of a series of architectural forms that reproduce the proportions of buildings in Beirut damaged over the period of long drawnout conflict during her absence from the city. They are stylized substitutes for the original buildings, all constructed in sheet steel pierced in the same grid pattern in a formalized representation of the effects of shellfire. This formalism generalizes the condition of these individual structures, although their varying outlines draw them back to their original aspects and locations in an actual urban environment. They are like memories that have been distorted by temporal and spatial distance; exilic in the pull they exert on the artist’s sense of self as relics of a familiar world made strange – as reference points and means of orientation that seem the more essential the more they grow obscure.
This exhibit is juxtaposed with the 12th century buildings of the college and both having a historical context. Jesus College was established between 1496 and 1516 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery.
I have processed the image of the Bunker in black and white as I feel it is more of a statement in this medium. 

Ellie

Ellie was magic, she had a lovely face and was fun to work with.  Here are a few pictures from tonights shoot.  Thank you Clive for setting it up.

 

Sculptures in the Close, Jesus College Cambridge

We visited the Sculptures exhibited at Jesus College Cambridge "Sculptures in the Close".
Eduardo Paolozzi CBE RA (7 March 1924 - 22 April 2005) a Scottish sculptor and artist associated with the periods of  Pop art, Conceptual art, Modern art, Surrealism. He is a sculptor I really like so I was pleased to see a Piece of his work. I often visit the courtyard at the British library to see his depiction of Newton.  The modern sculptures are thrown into stark relief in the historic setting of an old Benedictine convent dating back to the 12th century.  Exhibits included Thomas Houseago, who most recently exhibited in New York's Rockefeller Plaza, and Eva Rothschild, who was elected to the Royal Academy in March. They are appearing alongside previous Turner Prize nominees Roger Horns and Lucy Skaer, as well as Royal Academy Jack Goldhill Award winner James Capper, who is just 27 years old.

 

 

 

Covehithe Suffolk

Saturday 2 September 2017

Once a glorious medieval church, St Andrew's now lies in picturesque ruin by the sea, with only the lofty fourteenth-century tower (preserved as a sea mark) and a curtain of original walling surviving.  A smaller thatched-roof church, built in 1672 when the inhabitants were given permission to dismantle the older church and still in use, nestles inside the ruins.  There is archaeological evidence of the linen industry having been carried out at Covehithe until the 18th century.

This part of the coast is suffering from the highest rate of erosion in the UK and the hamlet  has suffered significant loss of land and buildings in the past.  One hopes that the rapidly encroaching sea will leave this lovely place to be enjoyed for a few more decades. 
In the Middle Ages Covehithe prospered as a small town and during the reign of Edward I was granted a fair on the feast day of St Andrew. It takes its modern name from the de Cove family who held land there at that time, and the fact that it had a hithe, or quay, for loading and unloading small vessels. By the 17th century it had fallen victim, like nearby Dulwich, to coastal erosion. 

On Saturday Olympus held a photo-walk in this area and it was largely supported by photographers from Cambridge Camera club.  It was a great day though we had hoped for more wind and clouds to use filters and slow-shutter speed.