Drawing Skills: Yorkshire Sculpture Park

This morning I took my Exploring Ideas work to the OCA office in Barnsley ready for assessment. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is so close that it really is a "must do".

There were several things I wanted to see but as always there's lots of lovely work that I hadn't bargained for.

Ursula von Rydingsvard

Ursula von Rydingsvold

This artist is renowned in the US but relatively unknown here. This is her first large scale exhibition in Europe and it is huge with work of all sizes, indoors and outside. The work ranges from drawings to sculptures six metres high. Bronze Bowl with Lace was made especially for this exhibition and is placed at the entrance to the Park.

Bronze Bowl with Lace - Ursula von Rydingsvard. 2014. 1

This impressive patinated bronze work looks so at home in the landscape that I couldn't edit out the countryside around it. Apollo Magazine reports it like this:

On press day, I saw this in broad daylight. Heavily patinated by the artist in shades of brown, orange, blue, copper and silver, in one light it dominates the landscape. But - in a manner that is true of much of von Rydingsvard's monumental work - from another angle, and in softer afternoon light, the piece almost disappears into the background of trees and grass. In the evening, lights both within and around the work lend it an other worldly presence. The combination of grandeur and discretion and the gesture towards domestic craftsmanship on quite another scale in this case lace), is the key to the powerful, unsettling appeal of von Rydingsvard's work. 2

I would really love to see it lit at night.

Many of the works are inside in the Underground Gallery and a number are made in cedar which made the gallery smell wonderful. von Rydingsvard uses 2" x 2" blocks of wood that she glues and carves into shapes that remind me of rocky outcrops or even the sea. This is one I particularly liked. It changed its character as I moved around it.

Scratch by Ursula von Rydingsvard. 2013/4
My image

There was work made out of the intestine of a cow, wire and paper. My favourite indoor exhibit was "mama build me a fence"

Mama build me a fence - Ursula von Rydingsvard. 2002 3

This is a free standing work with the cedar planks simply leaning against the wall. They are marked with chalk and graphite and heavily cut into.

Mama build me a fence - Ursula von Rydingsvard. 2002
Detail. My image

Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin 5

Tracey Emin doesn't often make work for outdoors but Roman Standard (2013) is one of those works. The piece is of a very fragile looking blackbird on the top of a long pole. At certain viewpoints the bird seems to disappear. The YSP literature says that it "presents a purposeful contrast to the eagle-topped standards traditionally carried into battle by the Roman army to symbolise power". 4

Roman Standard - Tracey Emin. 2013. 4

I must say I found it rather underwhelming.

Magdalena Abakanowicz

Magdalena Abakanowicz 5

This artist is fairly new to me but when I saw she had work at YSP I just had to have a look and it was monumental. The YSP is just the place for such a piece because it too is vast.

Seated figures - Magdalena Abakanowicz. 2010. My image

Somehow these made me feel quite sad.

I noticed that the cast iron the seats are made from had taken on the markings of the moulding pattern from which it was cast. It seemed strange to see "metal wood".