2011 Streak Day 192/365: Public art

2011 Streak Day 192/365 (Monday 11 July): Walk - 3 miles, Time - 1hr, Weather - hot and sunny

Today was a Winchester day and the walk was around the city centre. In the grounds of the cathedral I saw this sculpture. 

At a distance I thought it was a De Stijl sculpture and as I did not know any De Stijl sculptures (except of course Rietveld's chair, which is much more a sculpture than a chair) I was intrigued.

It is in fact a representation of the Crucifixion by Barbara Hepworth in the style of Mondrian, made in 1966 and is rather fine. If it has a front and a back the other side is the front but I took the photo from here because it shows the way some public sculptures can enhance their space. I like the way the two families with their push chairs are moving into frame.

What a pleasure to come across a piece of public sculpture that can be enjoyed. Most of it is dull enough to pass unnoticed, which is surely the reverse of its purpose.

Looking at this piece reminded me that the Barbara Hepworth studio in St Ives is one of my favourite galleries because it is suffused with the personality and taste of the artist. It has that in common with Kettles Yard in Cambridge, which was once the private house of a collector

It is not at all odd that I think of favourite places walking round Winchester. It is a city of which I am becoming increasingly fond.

2011 Streak Day 133/365: Winchester Cathedral

2011 Streak Day 133/365: Walk - 4.5 miles, Time - 1hr 40min, Weather - chill wind, variable sky

Most of the walking today was around Winchester at a leisurely pace.

The photo is of a light sculpture by Peter Freeman in the grounds of Winchester Cathedral. Obviously in the light of day it is mostly a shiny metallic object but I am sure in low light and at night it will come to life. It has a rather neat feature in that you can text a number to change the display - somehow having an interactive piece seems suitable for the surroundings.

As it was the middle of the day my interest was in the way it reflected its surroundings. I was fascinated by the fact that I could position myself to take this photo and yet remain invisible. Somehow at certain, narrow angels, there was no reflection. I could walk around it: se myself, see myself, and then suddenly disappear.

What fun you can have with cunningly shaped mirrors!

From the exercise point of view there s nothing much to report. If I was not in the middle of a project to take some exercise every day. This would not have been classed as exercise; it would have been classed as exploring an attractive city. Nevertheless I did walk four and a half miles and so deserves to count.

2011 Streak 91/365: Real work

2011 Streak 91/365: 

Walking - 4.6 miles, Time - 1hr 35 min, Weather - broken cloud cover, slightly cool

There are a number of public sculptures in the town but this is not one of them. It just an old plough made in about 1900, in Hemel, mounted on a brick plinth,but it pleases me more than most of the pieces deemed to be art.

Firstly the hand plough is an incredibly sculptural object, never mind that its only purpose is practical, and is therefore satisfying to look at. However there is more to it than that. It was actually manufactured in Hemel and as such is a reminder of a local industry that existed before the coming of the New Town. (There is a description of the Boxmoor Ironworks here).

As such it is also a more general reminder of a time when many things were local and the country was full of small manufacturers. It is also true that the resulting products were rougher hewn and less sophisticated but I rather like  the fact that you can see both how it works and how it was put together. It is not a shiny mysterious box like so many of today's objects. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it is a reminder of how hard work was 100 years ago. To use and control that plough would have taken considerable skill and physical effort which would have taken its toll.

I have to remember that as I go out and about each day. What I do is physically easy - a pleasure, with none of the back-breaking drudgery that characterised work in previous times. Some times it is good to be reminded of why it is good to be alive now rather than in times gone by

Photothon 2 - Limehouse

Today I was in London and my furthest point was Limehouse. It was remarkably peaceful, like a Sunday, with a few people jogging by the river and others just looking at the water. But presumably a few minutes away in the glass towers of Canary Wharf there was the cut and thrust of all sorts of financial activity.


This is a rather fine herring gull by Jane Ackroyd.

It is in Narrow Street almost opposite an old pub: The Grapes. In 'Our Mutual Friend' the pub is called the The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters and is the location of a number of important events, including a coroners inquest. It is strange to think of holding an inquest in a pub but apparently it used to happen. (By the way fellowship porters were regulated porters who carried measurable goods like grain or coal).

The novel contains some of Dickens' bleakest descriptions of London and of this stretch of the river he said:

...where accumulated scum of humanity seemed to be washed from higher grounds, like so much moral sewage, and to be pausing until its own weight forced it over the bank and sunk it into the river. In and out among the vessels that seemed to have got ashore and the houses that seemed to have got afloat...

Things are not quite the same now.