A tale of two sculpture parks

 

Back in March, I still had respite funds, so I decided to visit Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which sits on the river Dearne, the river from which my family name comes from. My great Grandad Dearnley moved to Lincolnshire from Yorkshire originally.

So technically, YSP is my own sculpture park.

YSP were kind enough to waive any ticket fees, and let me have a free ticket, although this was the first time I've visited YSP by public transport, and it was an adventure! A train delay meant I would have to wait too long to get a bus, so I ended up paying more for taxis :-s

So it wasn't ideal!

I was keen to see Robert Indiana, and his particular use of recycled material seems like a method I could use with no materials budget, but I don't live near an abandoned shipyard... although I do live near a marina...

This piece stood out in particular to my own work as a woman artist... Mansplaining.

More mansplaining here from Damien Hirst! Maybe one day I will be allowed to make sculpture about my own experiences as a teenage mother!

I really wanted to see Rachel Kneebone's work in the chapel

Here I photoshopped The Best Thing in a couple of locations at YSP, to imagine if it was a fully realised sculpture exhibited there.

I noticed that Bretton Hall is being renovated into a hotel; I do not know who these people are who have laid claims to the mansion but I do know that as an illustrator, I made a zine titled Ms Blackbird's Home For Peculiar People, which reimagines the abandoned Johnson Hospital as being the HQ for Ms Blackbird, ymbryne of the Lincoln loop, in a spin off of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.

 So I emailed Yorkshire Sculpture Park to find out if I could possibly run some wellbeing workshops there once it reopens as a hotel, so I could come and stay at my own sculpture park, and do artist talks etc.

I had a reply from the curators to say that it was all booked up with artists, some gatekeeping info... but they were kind enough to say that if I ever want to visit, I can email them, and I can have a free ticket whenever I want, and they'll keep my info on file for any future opportunities.

It's the very LEAST they could do.

So contrast with Doddington Hall Sculpture Exhibition just outside Lincoln. 

I can get there very easily by bicycle along the Georgie Twigg track, so I emailed Doddington Hall to ask if they could off a free ticket for an #ExcludedUK artist and carer, but got no reply.

I had my first COVID in July, which was absolutely terrible, and self isolated until I was well again, and after weeks of cloudy weather, I decided to go for a ride out to Doddington Hall anyway, because I needed the vitamin D.

A few years ago, I was invited to the private view for the sculpture exhibition, probably when I was running Lincoln Artist's Network, so I have visited it before.

Doddington Hall rely on volunteers, but still request an entry fee to visit the gardens where you can see the work. 

Of course, as an artist, there are no labour laws in the land that mean I should pay to look at art to do my job, so I had a look around to see what I could see without paying to do my job.

At the back of the hall there was this massive car bonnet logo...

    

This kinetic sculpture that resembles a washing line / wind farm

I did not bother to look for the artist info, as I'm not paid enough...

There is a long vista that is visible from the gardens at Doddington Hall, with a pyramid at the bottom, so I decided to go for a walk down to the pyramid.

This view is looking back at the hall from the pyramid

The pyramid is a folly built from materials on the estate, and not a tomb.

However, I did summon the ancient forces of Mumm-Ra, the Ever Living, and it does resemble a mummy's outside toilet!

Inside, there was no mummy, nor a mausoleum, it is an empty tomb... 

However, it would be an excellent location for a video or sound art piece - I wonder what the acoustics are like?

My experience as a sculpture is only as one of Anthony Gormley's plinthers for the Fourth Plinth, but no Anthony Gormley was seen at either location. 

The lovely Rosanne Robertson has some work in the Summer Of Love LGBTQ exhibition at YSP, which happened after I visited, but I've seen work online.

I guess that if there's a private view at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, I may be able to make it, but I would also hope that one day it will be MY private view!!