Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Angie Lewin

I went to the YSP especially to see the work of Angie Lewin and I wasn't disappointed.  The exhibition is called "A Natural Line" and it celebrates the outdoors and native planting.  As a gardener myself I appreciate the plants she shows and admire the colours she uses.

The artist walks every day with her sketchbook at the ready and looks for the shapes the plants make when they are together.

Lewin uses wood engraving, linocut, silkscreen, lithograph and collage to show plants in their native surroundings.  Some of her work was paper collage on small pieces of driftwood and they were very attractive.

Collage

Lewin was exhibiting both printing and watercolours and without a doubt for me it is the printing that lends itself to her particular way of working.  I like the shapes of the plants, the flatness of the colour and the way she relies on mark making for the textures she needs.

Lakeside Teasels

My particular favourite was Agapanthus II because it is so evocative of a summer garden and the blue is just beautiful.

Agapanthus II

There were many examples for me to look at that showed blowing grasses similar to the design I have for my scarf.

Spey Birches

Lewin produces a multitude of merchandise from wallpaper to notelets and for the YSP she has made a limited edition scarf with grasses no less!  Beautiful.

Lewin's wool and silk scarf for the YSP

I enjoyed this exhibition very much and I'm very pleased I looked at it first because the next exhibition left me very stirred up and thoughtful.

Amar Kanwar

Amar Kanwar is an Indian artist who lives and works in New Delhi.  He was a student at the time of Indira Ghandi's assassination and the Bhopal disaster and those events changes him into an artist who uses his skills for social comment.  The exhibition at YSP is "The Sovereign Forest + Other Stories and shows in film, text and evocative sound the human and environmental cost of industry in Odisha.  

The Sovereign Forest is a collection of work made possible by close working with a variety of artists, activists, farmers and institutions over a long time.  The work is really a team endeavour.  Central to the exhibition is a video over 40 minutes long called "The Scene of the Crime" which is a series of visual vignettes (called "Maps") just prior to erasure by industry.  There is sound accompanying the film but it is the occasional sound of wind, water and the environment.  

Evidence - Amar Kanwar

Because of the comparative quiet of the film and the still, darkened room you are forced to dwell on the unusual images of such things as waving grasses (sometimes out of focus) and fishing net wrapped around a post.  The occasional bit of text provokes thinking.  It is very powerful and quite harrowing.

There were also 3 large books and the visual interest was produced by over head projection of more film onto the recto. On the verso was the written story.  There were 3 books; The Counting Sisters, The Prediction and The Constitution.  I only managed the first one as it was 80 pages long.  The story is of 6 women whose role is to count the dead and disappeared and mourn their loss.  

Outside there are 6 Benches called "The Listening Benches" which are made of reclaimed wood from the organ at YSP.  The benches have a soundtrack that continues the theme of counting the dead.

Listening Bench 4

This exhibition has made me think of some of our own history like the Highland Clearances, the Industrial Revolution and the power of the 18C absentee landlords in Ireland who looked on the land as a cash cow.

This will stay with me for a long time.