Culture Vulture

Now and then it strikes me that I should be doing more with my weekends than lounging in bed with the mother of all hangovers and only when Sunday night comes around do I say to myself "Next weekend Jennifer, you will do something constructive and productive with your weekend!"

When I decided to boycott the Friday night pub crawl in favour of a Saturday strolling around Yorkshire's Sculpture Park with my mum I suddenly felt I was spending my free time positively and on Monday I was sure I would profit from a weekend off the booze!

We arrived at the Park on a bright albeit slightly chilly afternoon ready to absorb the culture and gaze upon works by the likes of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore but it was the main exhibition by David Nash that my mum wanted to see.

YSP's exhibition was David Nash's largest ever and showcased works from across his 40 year career. He mainly works in wood and explores the way that the sculpted piece transforms long after he has finished work on it as the wood dries and warps. Many of his works have had their exterior charred to change the properties of the wood and the way it behaves, often changing the viewers perception of this natural material. One of these charred sculptures is shown here, this particular boulder he charred on site at YSP - an exhibition in itself.

By far his most interesting sculptures, in my opinion, are his works in living wood, manipulating the living, breathing environment to create works of art that endure long after the viewer gets bored. One of Nash's most famous pieces is "Ash Dome" where he pruned a ring of living Ash trees at specific places and at particular times in their growth to create a dome of zig-zagged Ash. Taking 30 years to complete it really is a work of passion and dedication! Although we could not see this as an actual installation, we were able to see the project from conception to completion through video, drawings and photographs.

Nash's weirdest creation was a boulder he carved from oak, inventively called "Wooden Boulder", that he left by a stream in 1978 in the Welsh mountains and then documented its journey year after year through film and photography until it reached the sea. Although it was quite mesmerising to watch this boulder bobbing along down the river and then lying for years on an embankment it did strike me as rather pointless. Perhaps it was the mournfulness of watching the wretched boulder slowly decay away, spending years washed up on banks, until finally reaching its destination that didn't really float my boat.

Some of his smaller but more interesting works were housed at the Longside Gallery a mere 2.5 km walk from the main park. We set off in glorious sunshine but in true British style that quickly turned into a hurricane about 1 km in. We fought through hale and gale force winds, trudged through sliding mud and avoided rabid dogs to reach the final part of our cultural enlightenment. Although his works were interesting in the final gallery, I'm not convinced it was worth the walk and to be honest, by that point, we were thoroughly Nashed out.

Although many of David Nash's installations were interesting and there was a lot to look at, it wasn't actually that inspiring. Maybe I just don't 'get' sculpture but i much prefer its two dimensional counterpart and can understand and relate to different mediums better. The bits that have stuck with me the most were that I was annoyed I couldn't take photographs inside as these were where his most interesting exhibits were and the £20 it cost for two sandwiches and a pot of tea!

So, did YSP convince me to denounce the pub and spend my weekends more usefully? "Of course!" I thought that evening whilst downing my 3rd tequila. "But not next weekend or the weekend after... and the weekend after that I have.... oh and then there's...".

Added 16/06/2011.