Shortcuts & digressions is a collection of contemporary sculptures which contain with in them selves a story, mood or sense of being felt by the artist.
We went round Norwich castle were the exhibit was being shown while we were on holiday and I thought I would have a look. I especially liked:
- You Can’t Touch This by John Frankland
A wall of laminated Polythene stretched across wooden frames. It is shiny, giving a modern feel. Like an office building in a city, with glass windows all the way up it. And yet the yellowy colour is more like a warehouse. Maybe it is a lift into a space ship? Can you see through it on the other side? the intrigues, like these, about it and what it is make you want to open the inset door like frames. Or even just touch it. To me it shows the future and the doors we may pass through.
- Untitled Stile (teenaged version) by Adam Chodzko
Bright blue gloss paint on a wooden stile. There are dents in the wood as if it has seen ware before, and the paint has given it a new lease of life, made a new. Though the stile then seems strange, urging you to go over, like one of life’s little obstacles. It reminds me of walks in the dales with my family, but also of passing from one place to another as with a real stile you must pass over, but you may not see the place your in again.
- Climbing Around My Room by Lucy Gunning
A video of a journey, it starts and ends in exactly the same place and is on a continuous loop. It focuses on a young woman in a bright red dress as she climbs around a room empty save the few furnishing on which she climbs. The footage shows a journey, but also presents the childish nature in which we see things from a point of view were there are no risks present in our minds. It is the journey of a childish figure in the small world of a child. I like the concept of this piece, but at the time I didn’t really understand what it was trying to say.
- Ego Geometria Sum VIII: The Horse Aged 11 by Helen Chadwick
A wooden box with pictures of ancient crumbling pillars on its sloped sides. It looks like a small gymnastics horsebox or a child’s desk. The top has a picture of a child’s fingers resting as if to open a toy box, and pictures of stationary like it is a desk. Its colours, that of old photos, and the broken pillars on its side, and the other images, present a sad sort of remembrance of childhood, when things were new and unweather beaten. Over all it had a rather sad feel to it.
I Liked seeing a different style of art, as I have not seen a lot of contempory sculpture before. There was a written explanation, often quite lengthy, for each of the sculptures telling you what the artist was meaning, however I could not always see or feel it, so they just seemed odd.
I think I have learnt that often, everyday objects can present a completely new meaning if removed from their ordinary place and set in front of you, making you think.
