archaeology; Langdale Axe?

 I am becoming obsessed by Shadows.

 The Axe....we suspect is a Langdale Axe.

The display case at Wakefield Museum, with the axes.

If you look carefully, there is a pattern on the left hand one. It's almost like a processional way, leading to a Henge? This must have been a very prized possession; and I don't think it would have been lost. I think it was left as an offering; it's most certainly a beautiful work. And found in Wakefield. Though, we suspect, made in Langdale, in Cumbria, in the Lake District. The seat of the most prized Neolithic axes in northern Europe. Traded throughout northern Europe.



happy Hallowe'en

Time Bakery in Wakefield, celebrates Hallowe'en by baking a pumpkin out of bread! Lovely!

sliced slate

 

 

wall? bridge?

a line of slate slices, delineating space

The slices of slate create the boundary wall that encloses this garden. Undulating.
The garden is up near the council buildings in Wakefield. It was made for the Chelsea Flower Show (not this year) then subsequently re-created as part of the urban renewal of Wakefield and the surrounding District. The rusting metal question mark on the right, was, when installed at Chelsea, a sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, who was born in Wakefield.

 Some of the late greenery and poppies of this civic garden.

Long Division - Wakefield

'A Maze for Yorkshire' - at the Orangery

Though it sounds like a maths test, 'Long Division' is in fact a music festival held in Wakefield city centre.
I spent yesterday walking from venue to venue, listening to bands I'd never heard of, let alone heard their music! But it was fascinating, and great fun, and the music I heard was wonderful.
The venues included The Hop, Wakefield Theatre Royal, The Orangery, Warehouse 23, a nightclub, and Velvet, a small bar.
The other venue was Drury Lane Library; the old Carnegie library, which has been closed since we had our spanking new library opened last autumn. The Arthouse, of which I'm a member, is taking over the building, and has got funding to turn it into artists studios.
So this was a one-off opportunity to include the building as part of the activities.

 Inside Drury Lane Library

 Some of the lovely fixtures & fittings

 Outside; the back wall. Complete with, I think, a kestrel?

The bands I particularly enjoyed were Dead Flowers; Maia; Post War Glamour Girls; The Wave Pictures; Jeffery Lewis & Peter Stampfel.
There were others I'd have liked to go see, but either they clashed with those above, or the venues were rammed solid!
Today there's some films on, up at Drury Lane Library; 'Sound It Out', about the last surviving independent record shop on Teeside; and 'Searching for Sugarman', a documentary about musician Sixto Rodriguez.
No photos for this; I used my phone, but the quality was rubbish; and it's always hard to get a good photo at a live gig. I'm not really a 'people' photographer; they tend not to stay still for long enough! 

'knitting ninja'

Outside Mocha Moocho, a favourite cafe in Wakefield, is this knitted collage. It's attached to a railing surrounding a silver birch.
I've no idea who 'knitting ninja' is; but they've created a lovely 'art intervention', of knitted foods, in the main precinct, close to the Cathedral. It adds a much-needed splash of colour in this grey winter light. I like the idea; public art created and installed by the 'public'! Good work, knitting ninja, whoever you are!
I wonder if there are more of these, adorning the streets of Wakefield? I'll keep a lookout.

Jarvis @ wakefield

Today the new library and museum opened in Wakefield. To celebrate that, Jarvis Cocker, the musician and songwriter from Pulp, and Sheffield, was invited to do the honours. Here Jarvis is, after drawing the strings of the velvet curtain, announcing the 'official opening'!

He talked about how he had been banned by his local library for not returning books within the due date. And how he thought there had been a mistake, and he thought he was being invited to knock a library down, as libraries are threatened with closure all around the country.
Jarvis kindly stayed to chat and sign autographs for us fans who'd turned up to see him. He was very accessible, and chatted with everyone. I managed to get my CD of Pulp's 'we love life' signed, and I said how much I enjoyed his R6 programme, 'Sunday Service'. He told me he was thinking about how he had to get it organised for tomorrow.
What a charming man he is!

We in Wakefield have lost 2 libraries in the city centre, which have been replaced by this one smaller one...and a number of branch libraries have gone, so it's not quite all good news to say this new library has opened. However; it does look splendid; though I shall miss the intimacy of the Drury Lane library (a Carnegie Library, gifted to the city), and the 1960's architectural brutalism of Balne Lane central library. I've spent many a happy hour there, perusing the shelves, and harassing staff with requests for books on obscure artists. My education has come through using libraries; as a child I used my tiny local library from early on, and when I got into art college, I made use of the request service for writing essays and my dissertation. Afterwards, studying for my teaching certificate, and years later, my M.A. I regularly called into the libraries in Wakefield to look at, and order books. And of course I've borrowed books, novels, CD's, maps, read newspapers there, and used the local studies section. I still use the libraries extensively.
I'm pleased to see the opening of a spanking new library. Though I'm sorry to see the old ones go.
My childhood library, another Carnegie Library, has long gone, to be replaced by an anonymous glass and metal shed, kindly paid for by Tesco's, who bought the land around it, and built a massive supermarket behind it. I've also noticed how new libraries always seem to be smaller than the older ones....hmmmmm.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park - MIRO

Off to visit the YSP last Tuesday, to see the big Miro exhibition on there. I liked some of the work in the Underground Gallery. The large black bronzes (tautology?) outside were too solid and...well, black, for me!

But there was a lovely quote from 1959, on the wall of the Underground Gallery which I thought worth repeating. Particularly as the grounds of the Sculpture Park could be regarded as a massive garden.......

  'I think of my studio as a vegetable garden. Here, there are artichokes. Over there, potatoes. The leaves have to be cut so the vegetables can grow. At a certain moment, you must prune. I work like a gardener or a wine grower.

Everything takes time. My vocabulary of forms, for example, did not come to me all at once. It formulated itself almost in spite of me. Things follow their natural course. They grow. They ripen. You have to graft. You have to water, as you do for lettuce. Things ripen in my mind. In addition, I always work on a great many things at once. And even in different areas: painting, etching, lithography, sculpture, ceramics.'

The River Dearne; birches; blackthorn in bloom; all signs of spring on the way. The land beginning to awaken, open, and push us into the coming season.

Reminding me, I too need to get my gardening gloves on, and begin the work of planting, and tending. 

And remember, 'Everything takes time.'