The Sculpture Walk
Words and pictures by Joanna McLaren 21.09.11
Visual art surrounds Exeter University’s campus, creating a beautiful setting to walk through. If you’re interested in following a route through the university’s grounds, then the ‘Sculpture walk’, may be for you. Talented artists created all the amazing sculptures; Barbara Hepworth made my personal favourite. Her sculpture in the grounds is called ‘figure for landscape’ and was made in 1960. The sculpture appears to be moulded from bronze, which makes the piece of art have a beautiful turquoise tone.
Another one of the sculptures is very abstract; it’s called ‘Partition’ and was sculpted by Roger Leigh. The sculpture is bright yellow, and has very jagged edges- not something you could Roger Leigh: ‘Partition’ easily miss!
In total there are 24 sculptures to see, and completing the full walk takes around two hours, but if you don’t have enough time to do that then touring the outside sculptures takes approximately one hour. Spring and summer are the best seasons to walk the route, as most of the sculptures are outside, and the grounds look especially nice, as the campus has many bright coloured plants and trees- which would be in
full blossom.
On the Exeter University website quoted below you can get the map, clearly locating the route and where the individual sculptures are placed, I would recommend getting one of these if you are interested, as some of the sculptures are tricky to find- I spent several minutes searching for one, only to find it was hanging off a building 20ft in the air! Also, you can buy a booklet, which has interesting information about the sculptures and artists. If you’re an art enthusiast, then this is the walk for you.
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/webteam/shared/pdfs/directions/sculpturewalk.pdf
DARREN HARVEY-REGAN
Grey Squirrel disguised as a Red Squirrel
A Collection of Gaps
Phoenix Gallery, Exeter
22 July-1 September
A Freefall Review: 21st July 2011
By Sally, Felix, Georgie, Anna, Jon and Liz
Sally: I know art doesn’t always make sense but this exhibition was above random!
Felix: I think it was about the self image of animals.
Sally: It all seemed a bit cliché; once you’ve done taxidermy once, you’ve done it all.
Felix: I liked the mouse peeping over the edge having a look at himself, that was the best. He was discovering his own self image.
Sally: It was all a bit sterile.
Felix: It focused on how to display the animals, it used labels and science diagrams.
Lizzy: The exhibition seemed to address how we perceive animals in life and death. In some areas it highlighted how we view animals through science, breaking them down into small anatomical parts, dissecting them or stuffing them on our mantle piece to capture them in our homes and museums. But I agree with felix there is a sense of self discovery in how the animals view themselves. In the wild they don’t check themselves out in the mirror or play peekaboo in a reflection, so do they perceive themselves differently to how humans do?
Sally: It all felt a bit 2D for my liking. Although there were sculptures it all felt like there was no texture, it felt flat and clinical, sterile. Maybe that’s what they were going for. But it was all too subtle for me.
Felix: I think I get the squashed lizard now-its half way between life and taxidermy.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
THE BATS:
We all loved the bats, and wrote a short imagining of where we thought the bats had gone….
Felix (in the voice of an art critic): The labels (in death) were concealed, as the bat, being upside down when he sleeps, would cover them. Almost seeming that instead of dying, they actually get a new lease of life, like a piece of taxidermy.
Jon’s readers interpretation of Felix’s critical statement about the bats: They perceive themselves as empty spaces because they have no notion of self image.
Sally’s yarn: I only went out for a cup of sugar from next door, no-one was in so I tried number 3, nope, no answer. Thought that was strange. So, I popped off down to the Spa, and, who did I see, ah! It was Bill and Mandy from next door. Went up to Bill and said hi, but wait…..AHHH!
Anna’s self reflection in the voice of a bat: We kind of liked our bit of board and the funny looks we got from the people but we’ve been here sometime now and needed to move on-we got wind of an opening in the roof of Habitat so we’ve made new friends and taught all our tales of yore to the young’uns.
Jon’s News International homage: Five bats have been lost due to a lack of onlookers perceptions. Reports indicate that the bats do inhabit an alternate reality in which they have been perceived as dolphins, however five gaps have been left in onlookers reality.
Response by Lizzy: We’ve hacked their sonar to see if we can get the goss…
Lizzy’s love story: Frank and Mille flew away in a moment of romantic indulgence to a small Greek Island. They took up home in a dark, dank, dripping cave. They felt very at comfy. Every evening they would perform a ritual flight to display their love for each other, as their wings touched they used to create sparks which cascaded to the earth below. Soon tourists and island dwellers gathered each night to watch the love bats dance. One night, there was so many people watching they couldn’t sense each other and they collided. They smashed into a thousand starry pieces of glass. The onlookers greedily grabbed at the bejewelled ground for their slice of happiness. Back in the Exeter Phoenix cave, 3 bats remained, Millie’s ex-batfriends. At the moment Mille and Frank collided, Spence, Buster and Gurny imploded in a smudge of white dust, and on the wall next to them two dust puffs appeared.
