ART265. Site Specific Art In Calgary and Northumberland

Sculpture occupies real space like we do… you walk around it and relate to it almost as another person or another object.

Chuck Close

Some people say that golf is “a walk ruined,” I think a walk with sculpture, is a walk enhanced.

I have had the good fortune to visit several places where site specific sculpture is given prominence in nature. This first selection is from a trip to Canada in 2004. My husband I were enjoying a walk in downtown Calgary, where right next to the office blocks a strip of parkland had been left. Office workers could come and enjoy a lunch time walk, run or just sit and eat their lunch in beautiful surroundings and in amongst it were gorgeous sculptures. I was delighted to find this treasure and very envious there wasn’t something like this next to my office block.

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Also in Calgary, I loved this sculpture, in the business district, of two men meeting. I liked it so much that I went back to photograph it in the dark. I feel the night gives it a more complicit feel, especially if you move your focus to the hand placed on the others chest.

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Closer to home in Stamfordham, Northumberland we have Cheeseburn Sculpture Gardens. In their own words, “Cheeseburn Sculpture is a unique destination for contemporary art in the North East of England. Each summer our programme features three curated gallery exhibitions together with new sculptures, installations and performance throughout the gardens.”

This beautiful garden is open to the public for a limited number of weekends in May, July and August. Run by volunteers it is an excellent place to enjoy a variety of sculpture. Due to Covid 19 they have cancelled their dates in May this year and are hoping to open for the July and August dates. So I have included a small selection of the amazing work I enjoyed there in 2019.

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There is also the oppertunity to talk to the Artists themselves. This lady was kind enough to step outside to showcase her work for me to its best effect, in the sunlight. Her larger pieces were placed in amongst the trees and really were very magical.

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I loved these minute figures, although only about 13cm tall, they had so much character and realism when shot up close. They are by Peter Hammer. He has an Instagram and website which shows his fantastic work much more fully. I totally recommend checking them out.

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Now, I must admit I don’t know if the following four photos are of an installation or not. Being nosy I peeked into a little outbuilding and saw them. However, irrispective of whether they were or not, I just loved the way they were stacked and positioned, part terracota army, part neglected promise of flowers.

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The following piece was just so interesting, I wanted to photograph it from a number of perspectives. He seems to be sniffing the air, treading lightly while looking for something, or someone.

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Then further on I met his companion piece, who if you look carefully, is carrying a rock!

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  I manipulated this image to show the level of texturalisation on the piece.

Again, the following sculpture was so elegant, clean and beautiful that I took photos from several points of view.

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As a set of sculptures these monkeys were, in my opinion, fantastic! The way they were positioned around the garden, coupled with their facial expressions and individual dispositions really brought them to life.

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I have not shown all of the artworks, as I think it is such a wonderful place it is best to see it yourself. I really hope the pandemic becomes controlled enough to allow the public to see this year’s exhibitions.

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OK! I snuck a few more images in… It really is a fantastic place.

All Photographs taken by S Tweddle.