Visit to Edinburgh - 2 - Rose St

Walking around after dinner on the first evening in Edinburgh, I came across the lovely pedestrian Rose St. The street was full of patio restaurants, cafés and bars and I imagined that it must be really lively during the day, later in the evening and on weekends. Obviously my timing was off, it being a Tuesday early evening.

Rose St obviously celebrated poetry as there was a large board with a print featuring "poem of the month".

Since the street was not busy, it was great to have the opportunity to get a closer look at things. Most magnificently, there were a series of gorgeous laser-cut screens, illustrating a days-of-the-week poem.

The poem is Beachcomber by Scottish poet George Mackay Brown (1921-1996) and the screens were designed by Edinburgh based artist Astrid Jaekel. Her website can be seen here.

Mackay Brown was part of a group of poets who met regularly at pubs in Rose St in the late 1950s. They are known as "The Rose St Poets".

This series is a permanent feature of the street, whereas one may presume that "poem of the month" is temporary. Astrid Jaekel designed the mural and billboard for the changing poem also (first picture above).

Saturday screen!

Sunday screen!

An end screen.

An end screen that includes a plaque giving artist and poet details, as well as the poem Beachcomber in full.

Day in Dublin

I had a few things to do on the north side of Dublin and passed by this drawbridge. Actually, I am not sure exactly what this is (formerly a canal lock?) but it seems to be a bit out of place. It reminded me of old Dutch landscape paintings and I thought this was appropriate as I planned to go to the Eugeen van Meigham show at the Hugh Lane Municipal gallery later in the day (which I will post about next week).

In the meantime I took the opportunity to have a closer look at the giant iris outside the NCI building. I had spotted this on a previous visit to Dublin, but the rain kept me from further investigation then.

This stainless steel piece was created by Vivienne Roche and commissioned by the National College of Ireland (NCI) and entitled NC Iris.

On the way to The LAB to see a couple of exhibitions, I came across this plaque on Foley St  in commemoration of specific women who had fought in various places in Dublin during the 1916 Uprising, and generally to all women who had taken part in the activities of 1916, the War of Independence, and the Civil War, which followed.

Although it was in the smaller gallery at The LAB, Lucy McKenna's exhibition, "Astronomical Mashup", was  definitely the main attraction (and totally perfect in the entrance exhbition space).

McKenna combines sci fi mythology with factual knowledge about Mars to examine the way information is understood about our neighbouring planet in specific and on a wider scale in general.

The exhibition is intriguing: it possesses both beauty and humour. McKenna's small scale painted images are delicate while the large graphics are in-your-face technical wallpaper! The overlaps keep perspective shifting while all the time the viewer is aware of the set-like tentacle streams (a la War of the Worlds) hanging from the scenery, and always in peripheral vision in this small space.

Like a moth, I was drawn to the curiosities of the light bulbs, which had subtle photographic images on their back surfaces: a darkened crescent moon on one and tiny spots (the Pleiades) on the other.

I also enjoyed the other exhibition, IAWATST (Interesting And Weird At The Same Time), which took up the main gallery (including upstairs space). It was a group exhibition of work from the OPW collection curated by students from an inner city primary school. I didn't get any pictures from this exhibition, but they are available online and further information is available on The LAB website.

Belfast break

 Last week I was up in Belfast for a short city break. On the way back to the hotel after a delicious dinner, I came across this impressive piece of stainless steel public art "The Spirit of Belfast" by Dan George.

The next day was spent mostly at The Mac, a very large arts centre. My visit to Belfast was precipitated by the exhibition "I Draw, I Do" by David Hockney that I wanted to see before it closed. Specifically, I wanted to see Le Plongeur, one of Hockney's "Paper Pools", which I knew was included in the exhibition. One of my nieces gave me Paper Pools (the book) last xmas after noting that I had bemoaned selling my copy of it before emigrating more than 20 years ago. I had never seen one of these works in person before and was not disappointed. This is a very large, multi-panelled absolutely gorgeous "painting" made directly from paper.

The Mac was also hosting several other exhibitions, exploring "the possibilities of sculpture, installation and object-making". Keith Wilson's Calendar took up the entire space of the upstairs gallery.

Wilson's work explored the artist's studio - its relation to  itself, the gallery space, the artist, detritus and time... There are openings between the "months" to facilitate squeezing through to the interior for a different perspective.

Barbara Knezevic's work The Last Thing on Earth was installed in the Sunken Gallery on the ground floor. This work explores a theoretical object and speculative items involved with its unknown purpose.

I thought the inclusion of "rayograms" as theoretical documentation was interesting.

Dublinia - Viking Museum

It seems like a long time ago -- I think because it was such a gorgeous warm day and the weather has been like to a monsoon of late -- but it was only a couple of weekends ago that I went to see Dublinia Viking Museum at Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin. I had never visited this museum before and found the three floors of displays very enjoyable and educational. I had arrived shortly after the museum opened and I was sure glad of this as the place was jammed by time I was leaving at lunchtime!

I did the 96 step climb up St. Michael's Tower where there were great views of Dublin, including the outline of a Viking hut across the road from the museum.

Coming down from the tower I was delighted that one had to exit via the enclosed bridge over the road. It is such an elegant structure with stained glass windows letting lots of coloured light in that day.

Outside and in front of the cathedral is the chancery ruin. I imagine that the ground must have been considerably lower as that broken window structure was at my feet.

I have often walked by this series of pavement sculpture that gives an indication of the items found when the area was undergoing rebuilding. The building of the Dublin City civic offices was quite scandalous at the time as the archaeologists were in a beat-the-clock situation where they were only granted a very limited time to excavate the site.

The artist who created these works is Rachel Joynt, an Irish artist whose public work I have admired for some time.

Iowa City Sculpture

I was in Iowa City the last week of June for my husband's family reunion.  Downtown Iowa is a beautiful city, pedestrian friendly, and has a lot of public sculpture to enjoy. This bronze sculpture by Jane DeDecker suits its environs perfectly -- most often when I passed it there were children playing in its vicinity. 

Another bronze sculpture, Jazz, is by Gary Alsum. I think the vibrancy of jazz is well caught in this work.

There are quite a few abstract sculptures in the pedestrian zone too.

I particularly like this wiry tornado. (Oops forgot to record the accrediting plaques for these works.)

I was too busy looking at the map depicted and reading the pirate-like inscription to realise at first that this was a book.

A few steps had my understanding sorted out. I like the idea that you could be sitting on a bench reading under the silent stare of a giant book.

Outside the pedestrian zone, I came across this series of sculptures inlaid into the footpath. 

It's difficult to tell, but the grey arcs are sentences - letters depressed into the footpath.

 I am not sure if the author is a well-known Iowa poet, but by the language it is not a modern poem.

I like this bronze depiction of sheet music and that the artist is using an aural art form visually.

I was unable to find the credits, so I don't know if the bronze pieces are done by the same artist who did the arc lettering, or indeed if all the pieces are done by separate individuals in collaboration. In any case, they were all delightful to come across!

Most events for the reunion took place at the Grant Wood historic home, owned by my husband's uncle. In 2005 my husband, James Hayes was commissioned to create the bronze sculpture, entitled Ball, for the fountain in the upper garden.