Double Somersault

I've always liked this. It is a large sculpture that stands outside Sheffield Children's Hospital.

It's called Double Somersault and is by the artist William Pye. This type of tubular stainless steel structure is fairly typical of his work at that time (nowadays he is better known for his water sculptures).

Double Somersault was erected in 1976 by the Centenary Committee of the Children's Hospital (with some help from the Arts Council), but it has moved around a little since then. It originally stood on Western Bank, outside the main entrance to the hospital, but had to move along slightly when the entrance was altered. It moved again, as a result of more major changes to the hospital's entrances, around the corner to Clarkson Street, where it still stands today.

I remember stopping to look at Double Somersault during my very first week in Sheffield. I loved its simplicity, the slight asymmetry and the beautiful visual balance. Like many simple and elegant sculptures, it looks as if it was easy to design, but I bet it wasn't.

Links:
William Pye's website (I really like the favicon, but then, I would.)
A blogpost about William Pye by Stacy Alexander
A very brief biography of William Pye appears on this gallery's site

--
Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
Comments on the original post

Spiral

I was driving along Queens Road in Sheffield today when these caught my eye, so I decided it was worth stopping for a closer look.

This set of rather nice sculptures stand outside Screwfix. I've no idea who made them, or if other branches have something similar, I'll have to do some detective work there.

I think they're rather nice - not to mention very appropriate. A small visual oasis in a part of Sheffield that is rather less than picturesque.

--
Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
Comments on the original post

Phlegmatic

Our new section of relief road is proving fairly popular with drivers, but it has created a real challenge for the RSPCA in Sheffield, who were forced to close their animal shelter when the road was built. Fund raising for a new centre is underway in the form of Monty's Appeal, but in the meantime facilities in Sheffield are restricted.

At present a small building close to the original site is being used for kennels. This was a spectacularly ugly building until last summer, when it received the Phlegm treatment.

I pass it twice a day but I can't really get more than a fleeting glimpse when I'm travelling past, so we decided to go and take a closer look at the weekend.

The artwork is great, but Mr TLC had to drag me away - the sound of all those dogs howling was heart rending, but that may have been partly because it was breakfast time.

Links- updated
Meet Phlegm - he introduces himself to the readers of fatcap, a graffiti blog
Phlegm's blog
Phlegm's official art site includes some great photos

--
Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
Comments on the original post

Culture Vultures

After I wrote about the steelworker mural the other day, I suddenly remembered the vultures.

I used to love walking past the vultures. Part way down Arundel Gate in Sheffield was an end wall with a brick mural of four vultures. Like the steelworker, this was also commissioned by Sheffield City Council, but this one was built six years earlier than the steelworker, in 1980 and was designed by Ric Bingham, from the Landscape and Planning Department.

I used to play a kind of mental game every time I passed the vultures. As a child, I was given a copy of the soundtrack to Walt Disney's Jungle Book. One track on the record was the scene with the four vultures."What we gonna do?""I dunno, what d'you wanna do?" I loved it, I learned it off by heart, although I wasn't so keen on the song that formed the second part of the track - the start of that was a lift the stylus off the record moment.

When I arrived in Sheffield and spotted this particular mural it immediately brought back childhood memories and had me playing the scene from the Jungle Book in my head. I don't know if Disney's vultures were any kind of inspiration for this mural, but I always associate the two.

So why hadn't I thought about or noticed my feathered friends lately? Were they still there, or had they fallen victim to the major redevelopments in that part of town? I went back to check them out. They are still there, but whereas once they were a focal point in a run down area, now they are slightly overpowered by the large new buildings around them. In fact, the four culture vultures sit just across the road from one of my newer friends the Millennium Galleries, surveying the relative newcomer that has temporarily grabbed my attention.

I'm probably not the only one who has been overlooking them, whilst I was snapping away taking some photos, other people stopped to look; but then, maybe that was just because I was re-enacting a certain movie scene for the benefit of Mr TLC. Unfortunately, Mr TLC had wandered off to sit on a bench just down the road, something I had completely failed to notice. I'd like to think that the people who stopped were looking at the mural, and not at the crazy woman having a conversation with herself in a fake Liverpool accent.

"Now don't start that again!"

--
Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
Comments on the original post

A Man of Steel

I thought I'd show you one of Sheffield's best known faces. I can't tell you who he is, but I can tell you that this brick mural was based on the image of a real steelworker. Some adaptations to the man's appearance were made to allow the image to be created from coloured bricks.

"The eyes had to be enlarged, for example, or the pupils and the whites would have been smaller than a brick."

Paul Waplington

After an adjoining building was demolished, the City Council commissioned artist Paul Waplington to design the mural. The Council's Works Department then constructed it.

What are this image's vital statistics? Estimates seem to vary: everyone quotes the number of bricks used at 30000 and the number of types of mortar used is usually given as 5. The number of different types of bricks that were used is unclear - some sources say 12, others 18. I tried to count them for myself and came up with a different figure, so I won't add to the confusion! The differences in the colours of the various mortars seem to have become less noticeable over time, perhaps the same has happened to some of the bricks.

The mural was built in 1986, the year when I moved to Sheffield. There is another great shot of it here.

--
Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
Comments on the original post

Yes No Other Options (Part Two)

Art Sheffield 08
Yes No Other Options

Scroll down or click here for part one

I just couldn't leave the topic of our visit to the Millenium Galleries yesterday without telling you about the work of Sheffield based artist Andrew Cooke.

I found it hard to see how some of the art exhibited in the "Art Sheffield 08 Yes No Other Options" event fitted in with the "concept", but in this case it was very clear. I also thought Andrew Cooke's work was very funny, which in my opinion is a good thing. I don't subscribe to the view that says art has to take itself seriously.

1. A Guide to Maintaining Dignity in the Workplace (2007)
Andrew Cooke has actually written a "handbook" about how to resist the demands of your employers and avoid the pressure to perform. It was printed onto individual sheets and you were invited to take copies away with you if you wished.

The handbook covers absenteeism, mechanical sabotage, withholding enthusiasm, playing stupid strategies, procedural sabotage, work avoidance and theft.

Here's a few examples:

On procedural sabotage: "Do nothing. Procedures are there to be followed. So don't."

On work avoidance: "Find a place to hide. Toilets are a good option .... if queried, it may lead to self certifiaction the following day."
and
"Be seen behaving in a very productive manner by a superior. Then, if possible, disappear, safe in the knowledge that your superior will still believe you to be busy."

On absenteeism: "Consider using this strategy: during busy periods, when your work is understaffed..."

I thought this was great, so did Mr TLC and the various other visitors we saw there. We all had great fun matching up former colleagues to the various dubious strategies described by Andrew Cooke.

Now, which ones can I try next week...

2. Performance Under Working Conditions (2006)
I almost missed this one, after spending time watching some of the other video installations on offer I very nearly walked past it, but fortunately Mr TLC stopped me and made me put on the headphones and watch.

Andrew Cooke was doing the hoovering. Why is that interesting? Because he was the hoover! It was a video of a man crawling around, nose about an inch from a rather hideous hotel room carpet, making the whooooooooo-whoooooooo-whooooooo vacuum cleaner noise that famously terrorises cats of both the three- and four-legged variety.

Sometimes I feel I don't "get" modern art, that I don't take it seriously enough. Everyone else seemed to be nodding sagely at this piece and adopting thoughtful poses. Perhaps they were considering how Andrew Cooke was exploring "the working conditions of manual labour and effect of performing these tasks on the person involved." Maybe they were considering how he "Asks questions about status, respect, dignity, aspiration."

I wasn't, I was clutching my sides as I guffawed at the sight of a man literally doing the hoovering. Brilliant! I like it when people show me how to look at things differently. (And I know what will be happening in our house for the next few weeks if either of us mentions that particular phrase.)

My appreciation of Andrew Cooke's work may be missing something, but I'll still be looking out for him in the future.

Links:
A rather more highbrow informed review of "Art Sheffield 08 Yes No Other Options" and a blog post from The Guardian

--
Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
Comments on the original post

Yes No Other Options (Part One)

Art Sheffield 08
Yes No Other Options

We paid a visit to the Millenium Galleries today. A large section of the gallery is hosting part of "Art Sheffield 08 Yes No Other Options", a citywide contemporary art event.

So what is it all about? artsheffield.org describes it like this:"Taking as its foundation a specially commissioned essay by art critic Jan Verwoert, this city-wide exhibition addresses the fact that in a post-industrial condition, one particularly pertinent to Sheffield, we have entered into a service culture where we no longer just work, we perform in a perpetual mode of ‘I Can’. ...

Verwoert asks, “...What would it mean to resist the need to perform?” He suggests that certain means of resisting are in themselves creative ... art has also used the ‘ I Can’t’, by creating moments where the flow of action is interrupted, established meanings are suspended and alternative ways to act become imaginable. He suggests that as well as yes and no, there may be other options."

All clear?
Yes: Well done, you are doing better than I am. I understand the idea of living in a service culture and being driven to perform, but I'm still a bit hazy about exactly what is on offer here, especially since the pieces we saw before we got to the main exhibition space don't have any obvious relevance to performance, or the lack of it
No: Me neither
Other Options: Lets go and look at some of the actual art.

Want to actually see some art?
Yes: Here are two of the pieces on display ouside the main exhibition area. Both are created from neon lights and are by Sheffield based artist Tim Etchells. Aren't they brilliant?

No: I'll describe some for you. There was a third piece by Tim Etchells inside the main exhibition space (where I wasn't allowed to photograph) that read "Lets pretend that none of this ever happened"
Other Options: We could find out how these pieces fit into the overall event. Apparently "... by displaying phrases that make you feel you should act but make no immediate sense, Etchells shows and dismantles the power of words to make us perform."

Are you getting the hang of this Yes/No/Other Options thing yet?
Yes: Excellent, perhaps you could explain it to me
No: Me neither
Other Options: Just enjoy the art, I did.

There was some great art on display, some was thought provoking, some was funny, some was just plain incomprehensible (at least it was to me). I enjoyed what I saw, although I still don't think I've got my head round how much of it fitted with the "theme" (if I may use such a mundane term in reference to some rather conceptual art).

But do you know what? I don't care, I don't think it matters whether I "see" what the artist or the organisers want me to. What does matter is that I enjoyed myself, what I saw made me think, and it's made me want to check out some of the other sites. If you are interested, you have until 30th March to go and see for yourself.

Scroll up or click here for part two

--
Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/
Comments on the original post

Blue Bird

There is a beautiful flock of blue birds flying up through the stairwell leading to Sheffield's Graves Art Gallery.

Textile artist (and origami expert) Seiko Kinoshita has created a beautiful sculpture from paper yarn with some other mixed media. The sculpture, called Blue Bird, stretches from the skylight on the top floor to the ceiling level on the ground floor and links the Central Library and the Graves Art Gallery, which share this four storey building in Sheffield.

It is beautiful. Close up, each individual "bird" is simply a twisted piece of fabric made from woven strands of paper yarn, suspended on fine threads so that they bob and spin gently as the air moves. Individually, the "birds" look quite pretty, but viewed en masse they look absolutely stunning.

The first view of the sculpture is from below, standing in the entrance to the library you can look up at the flock of birds which seem to be fluttering up towards the skylight. The piece is big, but looks even bigger thanks to the clever way that the colours change from a dark cobalt/indigo shade of blue at the bottom, through sky blue in the centre, to a very pale turquoise at the top.

"The top skylight gave me the idea of birds flying. Also the library inspired me to think about The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck and I imagined blue birds flying up the staircase to the skylight"

Seiko Kinoshita

The view of this sculpture changes dramatically as you climb the stairs: first you look in on the flock of birds, which gradually change colour as you climb higher and higher. From the top floor, at the entrance to the gallery, the flock of birds stretches dramatically down to the foyer below.

Seiko was commissioned to make this piece, her largest to date, for this space by the Sheffield Galleries and Museum Trust.

While I was there, people of all ages stopped to look at the sculpture on their way into the libraries or the Graves Art Gallery. Younger children in particular were absolutely entranced by it. It certainly encourages people to come in to the gallery and admire the view.

--

Originally published here on my main blog http://three-legged-cat.blogspot.com/

Comments on the original post