Hooray for the Sainsbury Centre and their excellent exhibitions. I really didn’t know that Henry Moore the sculptor was also a textile designer until the brochure popped through the door. Yesterday was a day for abandoning the weeds and the studio and setting off with friends for a morning of culture. (I even vacuumed the car, how about that?!)
It was a fascinating exhibition and really opened my eyes as to the possibilities of making patterns and designs out completely unrelated ideas. Flowers and barbed wire, zigzags and safety pins, horses heads and boomerangs.
Some of the colour combinations were subtle and lovely, some were harsh and unapealing, scarlet and green with grey and black together do nasty things inside my head.
We hadn’t even known about the second exhibition, ‘Unearthed’. When we bough our tickets we were each given a small clay figure, each very individual.
We could keep them, but there would be an occasion to break them at some point. All the items on display were little figurines, not from any one particular time frame or even area, but brought together to highlight the way humans through the ages have felt the need, alongside the the daily effort of living, to make these tiny treasures.
We reached the point where we were invited to break our little figures and drop them into a perspex case as a representation of the way these things destroyed by time and then lay forgotten but we were quite unable to part with them. In fact I was tempted to reach into the case and see if I could rescue any! This brought up some interesting thoughts as to and how protective and possessive we felt about something we had only been given a short while ago.
Definitely a thought provoking exhibition and I would recommend a visit.
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Yes, & my little figurine has been placed safely in my own little display case now-great day, thoroughly enjoyed it!
I want to go to that exhibition!
Ooh, cool little figure! Love the fragmented feet, too…
I had no idea that Henry Moore had designed textiles, I can’t say that the designs you’ve shown are very inspirational, though I do like his sculptures.
I’m sure I’d have to hang on to one of those figurines too, the thought of wilfully breaking something would be anathema to me.
Contributing to the exhibit is one thing but smashing something people-shaped goes against the grain .
I would love to have seen the textiles ….. very “of their time”.
Sounds like a great day out , well worthy of a quick hoovering !
Wish I could have been with you at HM exhibition – I carelessly missed it when it was up this way. Loved the little clay man but think I would have pocketed him rather than broken him – it would have been too upsetting for him [and me] I think.
Socks: not quite a disaster but my feet need to be a good few sizes larger in order to wear them in the street so they are resigned to be worn only when nobody is about – most of the time then …
Thanks for your comment on mine by the way.