Brianhuman's Blog

‘Ma (間) is a Japanese word which can be roughly translated as “gap”, “space”, “pause” or “the space between two structural parts.” The spatial concept is experienced progressively through intervals of spatial designation. In Japanese, ma, the word for space, suggests interval. It is best described as a consciousness of place, not in the sense of an enclosed three-dimensional entity, but rather the simultaneous awareness of form and non-form deriving from an intensification of vision.  Ma is not something that is created by compositional elements; it takes place in the imagination of the human who experiences these elements. Therefore, ma can be defined as experiential place understood with emphasis on interval.’  Wikipedia

Photo: The Maze, Blenheim Palace, March 2018

Nine guardian angels watch over the congregation of All Saints, Landbeach.  Eight, wings folded and baring painted shields, look down from the hammer beams.  The ninth sits below the chancel arch, legs jauntily crossed and arms outstretched, its spread wings form a lectern.  This joyful figure, carved in oak, probably originated from the Netherlands in the 17th century, where it may have formed part a larger tableau in a church or cathedral.  It was bought from a York antiques dealer in 1882 for £13.50 (£1,544 now).  Showing its age, and then badly damaged when it was knocked over by a member of the congregation, the angel was restored recently by conservation woodworker Andrew Matthews at a cost of £1,350.

Photo: Angel lectern, All Saints, Landbeach, Cambs, March 2018

A version of Colouring Book by Jeff Koons at the Royal Academy during the Summer Exhibition 2011.  One of a number of versions, apparently: ‘A page from a Winnie the Pooh coloring book featuring Pooh’s companion Piglet was the genesis of Coloring Book. Koons took a magic marker to the page and colored in various zones; in the fabrication of the sculpture, he removed Piglet from the composition, which resulted in this abstraction rendered in cheerful pastel colors.’  In highly polished stainless steel, it became an optical illusion – was the sculpture transparent or was it reflecting the surrounding buildings?

Photo: Colouring Book, Jeff Koons, Royal Academy, London 2011

Youth by Wilfred Dudeney stands, or rather kneels suggestively, outside Pemberton House, Pemberton Row, London.  It was commissioned in 1955 to stand in front of the headquarters of the Starmer Group, owners of northern local newspapers, in collaboration with the architects R. Seifert and Partners. Dudeney (1911-1989) was an academic and teacher, a member of the New English Art Club and president of the Royal Society of British Sculptors 1971-75.

Youth is described as an ‘example of the figurative tradition advanced by modern influences’.  The stance of the muscle-bound figure and the proud stare give it distinctly unapologetic homoerotic overtones.  It combines this with a somewhat Fascist force, not to say aggression.  That Dudeney was a contemporary of Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Elizabeth Frink says a lot about the diversity of mid- 20th Century British sculpture.

Photo: Youth, Wilfred Dudeney Pemberton House, Pemberton Row, London, 2011