On Thursday the 17th of October we went on our annual autumnal trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with our first year students. Everyone arrived promptly at Tesco for 9 o'clock, and we so we set off on a quick trip up the M1, arriving at YSP for around half 9. Once our lovely bus driver Bob dropped us off at the new building, 'The Western' (which, fun fact, is shortlisted for a 2019 RIBA Stirling Prize!), we made our way through and into the park to start off at the Damien Hirst sculptures.
We began at the sculpture 'Myth', where everyone had a go at quick expressive drawings and taking photographs. We also managed to have a look at the exhibition currently on in The Western by Holly Hendry called 'The Dump is Full of Images'. It was here we also bumped into one of our ex-students Steph Longdon (who, fun fact, was in Patience's Graphics class!), who is now working there as a gallery attendant after studying Fine Art at university. (possible Where are they now blog post to follow folks!)
We then had a walk down to Hirst's 'The Virgin Mother', passing 'Charity' on the way down. Here we spend 15 minutes doing some more expressive drawings as well as some formal drawings and getting photographs of this stunning sculpture amongst the beautiful landscape surrounding it.
It was soon time to move on, making our way up to the Henry Moore's, with a quick stop to Sean Scully's 'Crate of Air'. Once we had spent some time both at Sully's work and Henry Moore's, we continued up towards the YSP centre. Once here we split into 2 groups, most of Fine Art and Photography went to the Underground Gallery, while Graphics and a few others from Art spent some time doing drawings of the landscape and the typography on the 'Walk of Art' outside the entrance. Graphics then did some research in the shop, looking at products and promotional materials, before joining everyone else down at the Underground.
The Underground Gallery is currently exhibiting the sculptural work of David Smith from the years of 1932- 1965. Smith's work throughout the years shows an evolution in his use of material, technique and form. Developing from his use of wood, to wire and nails, eventually creating large scale painting and stainless steel sculptures. These geometric, industrial and Modernist works are a perfect representation of the Abstract Expressionist movement Smith was part of.
Before we knew it, it was time to quickly grab some lunch by the picnic benches, before making our way down to Sophie Ryder's 'Sitting' and Ai Wei Wei's 'Zodiac Heads'. This is the last year we got chance to see Ai Wei Wei's 'Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads', which we have visited it every year we have been since it was first exhibited in 2017. It will be sad to see this one go! Here, our students had around half an hour to work independently either drawing or photographing. We also managed to squeeze in a group photo before we left, which we must say was the most organised group photo I think we have ever seen on a trip before! We are clearly living with the Instagram generation folks!
Boarding the coach for 2 o'clock, we began our quick trip back to college, not forgetting our annual Learner Voice survey which we ran on the way back. There will be a full blog post on this in the next few weeks!
Overall we had a wonderful day out as always, our first years were a delight to spend the day with. Most importantly, thank goodness for the sun! Not a cloud in the sky all day, even if it was a bit boggy at times (sorry to those of you who came in what started out as white trainers...)
Thank you for a great day out folks! We can't wait to see all your drawings and photos from the day in your sketchbooks next week!
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