Cedar in Yorkshire

I made a last minute dash to see the landscape art exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park ten days ago, only to miss it because that particular gallery closes an hour earlier than the main centre.  Ah me, the trials and tribulations of cutting things so fine.

But it's a long way to go to miss something, so I spent the time instead on the Ursula von Rydingsvard exhibition.  You can't miss the first piece of work towering above you as you arrive.

Bronze bowl with lace

There's a scattering of others around the outside of the centre (although I know now that I missed some more at the Camellia House.  What Camellia House?  I'll find it next time).

A certain sameness, yes?  Almost all of the artist's work is based on cedar, with the structures built up from beams and carved into shape - some cast in bronze or resin - and, with the exception of that initial entrance piece, I found myself a little underwhelmed.  They're obviously monumental but I didn't find myself particularly engaged by them.

Inside was better.  Plenty of wood - plus cow's stomach and acaba paper here and there - and plenty of carve marks showing.  They were very immediate, and I liked the effect of tiles when all the beams met just so.

The inside sculptures were more varied and interesting than the outside ones.  Some - spoons, ladles, weeping plates - seemed a little folksy, if on the large side (I doubtless missed the point), but others I did like.  A row of five outsized bowls along one wall was one of my favourites.

Krasawika II

Like many others, it was to do with body forms.  I wasn't so sure about at least a couple of them - one (Halo with Straight Line) seemed mostly like a fun climbing structure, another (Droga) made me think for some reason of a sandworm from Dune.  But I rather liked one that reminded me of a massive sea creature - the roll of a whale or porpoise, perhaps, in the slow movement of the sea - even before I saw its name.  

Ocean Voices

I was very taken by two panels called Hemorrhaging Cedar I and II, made from acaba paper (apparently made from a rare banana) moulded over a cedar relief panel (or possibly individual panels?).  The paper absorbs oils from the wood and becomes a really interesting surface almost like (admittedly unusually textured) skin, complete with veins and blemishes.  

That skin-ness caused me to think initially that another couple of items were constructed similarly, but they turned out to be made from the fourth stomach of a cow.  Whatever, I liked them too.  It could partly have been in both cases (paper and stomach)  that they felt almost light and airy after so much heavy wood.

There were other pieces that I liked - Blackened Word, apparently based on handwriting, immense and very satisfying, another favourite (no photo - it came out too blurred); Large Ring (I think part of the appeal of this one was once again that lack of weight bearing down) - and in many more the carving was fascinating in itself or the whole work had presence.  Equally there were some that had no impression on me - I mentioned the spoons and plates, but Von Rydingsvard's paper and silk 2D pieces, that had helped to draw me in from outside, also came into that category.  And in the end I decided that, while it was interesting to have seen her work, it left nothing behind.  I wasn't drawn in, I didn't care enough about it.  I suspect a part of the problem for me was that it was too too much - less (quite a lot less) might have been sufficient.  I'm glad I saw it and on a future visit to YSP I would even catch up with the odds and ends I missed, just for interest, but that would be an end to it.