Exhibitions at Gainsborough Old Hall

 Last week we went to Gainsborough Old Hall to see a couple of exhibitions before they finished.  I have visited the Old Hall before and you can see my posts about the visits here, here, here and here.  The first was a textile and art exhibition based around Medieval animals, both real and fantasy.  I liked the woodcut bear above and it was printed onto a old piano roll which I though was really clever.

 This read dragon looked very much at home in such an ancient building.

As did this willow unicorn.

The costume exhibition was focused on costumes created for films and I picked out the costumes that appealed most to me.  The photos are not as clear as I would have liked, but this was due to the low lighting.  This first one was for Kenneth Branagh in Henry V.

 This was made for Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth - we all noticed what a small waist she had.

 I was surprised at the level of detail. I thought that short cuts might be taken as the costumes would mainly be seen from a distance, but this was not the case.

These three costumes were worn by Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes and Dame Judi Dench from Shakespeare in Love.

 Dame Judi's sleeve had a beautiful basket weave type pattern.

 Emily Blunt wore this embroidered gown in Young Victoria.

 Robert Downey Jr's flamboyant costume came from Restoration.  I liked the slashing on the sleeves and the ribbons.  (I have obviously watched far too much Doctor Who in my lifetime as I kept thinking this mannequin had moved!)

 This costume was worn by Helena Bonham Carter in Suffragette.  I only saw this film earlier this year and it made quite an impression.  Until then, I hadn't really considered the difficulties faced by the male supporters of female suffrage, or the families of the suffragists or suffragettes.

 Finally,  Kristen Scott Thomas' costume from Darkest Hour.  Again, we noticed how tiny she is, although this was more apparent from the back of the suit.  There are more photos from our visit to Gainsborough which will be in my next post.

Trip to Sleaford

 Chris and I are enjoying a few days holiday this week and although we haven't yet achieved that much, it is nice not to have to go to work.  We had a trip out to Sleaford yesterday: a small market town in Lincolnshire.  Above is a view across some of the rooftops.

 The purpose of the trip out was to visit the National Centre for Craft and Design (it used to be called the Hub, but has recently been re-branded).  It looks a huge building, doesn't it, but in fact a lot of space inside is used as teaching rooms and it actually only has two galleries. 
There was a jewellery exhibition, based around the theme of 'Transportation' and linked with Australia.

I really liked this piece, called 'Bed and Board' by a Professor at the University of Lincoln.  It is based on the Head of Lincoln prison in around the 1830s, who apparently took a shine to the women inmates and who would (for a favour or two) put in a word to prevent transportation to Australia. The piece shows an image of Lincoln Cathedral, with a cell window over the top and a hanged figure with a view of the Castle Observatory tower over it.  Apparently, when not involved with the women, the Head of the Prison was very fond of astronomy and had the tower built. 
The other exhibition made much more of an impact on me.  It was called the 'Museum of Broken Relationships' and displayed items that had been donated by people that had some kind of significance in a broken relationship.  There were descriptions by the side of each item by the donors; bittersweet, poignant, angry, bitter, sad, happy and heart-breaking.  There were a few that really stayed with me.  There was a postcard sent to a girl by her boyfriend.  He asked her parents for their permission to marry her but was told no.  That night, he drove his car off a cliff.
There was a sketchbook by a thirteen year old girl of her hospital ward. She died and the sketchbook was donated by her brother. 
There were two lacy bras (which initially made me smile, thinking they were a gift from an ex-boyfriend), which showed the broken relationship between a woman and her body once she was diagnosed with cancer and then had to face the reconstructive surgery.
 A roll of astroturf with a label 'for ...(name)' was a gift for a girl from a boy who had a crush on her.  She needed the astroturf for an art project and he managed to get some for her.  Unfortunately, she left the area soon after and the roll of turf had been by the door, waiting for her to collect it ever since.  The stories were fascinating and it left me with the thought that even though we all live in different parts of the world, we all share the same emotions.  A thought provoking and moving exhibition.

Trip to the hub

Last Saturday, Chris and I ventured into the wilds of Lincolnshire, (well, Sleaford) to visit the hub (the National Centre for Craft and Design) www.thehubcentre.info/ as there were some new exhibitions which we were both interested in. Shown above (from the promotional material) is an installation by Suzi McLaughlin called, How does your garden grow? which shows her use of paper cut sculpture, incorporating laser cutting and origami. The garlands were placed in the stairwell areas, and were fascinating. There were also sculptures displayed in cases, using books as the starting point and creating beautiful bouquets of white flowers from the pages.

The roof gallery exhibition was by the Contemporary Crafts network (based in Lincolnshire and surrounding counties) and was called Green. This incorporated many different interpretations of the word and included ceramics, metalwork, felt, glass and paper. I particularly liked the metal flowers (and it helps that I know the maker!)

We also visited a Vivienne Westwood shoes exhibition - more of that in a separate post.