Yorkshire Sculpture Park

It was one of those balmy summer's days when families, throw off their shoes and their cardies and stretch out on the soft, green grass.  Acres spread before us, trees, huge sheltering trees, placid lakes and sheep meandering past huge sculptures... bliss!

For years now as we have driven back and forth from Sheffield to York we have passed the sign "Yorkshire Sculpture Park" and promised ourselves "We'll visit next time!"  and finally we did!  

I think it's set to be a regular stop off in the future.

 A surprise was just how big it all was.  We had a taste of two exhibitions and a walk around one of the lakes. Ursula Von Rydinsvard, a truly monumental artist who I'd not heard off, creates these huge sculptures from cedar beams.  She  cuts the beams into thousands of pieces and then assembles and laminates them, finally rubbing graphite to create intricate textured facades.

The voluminous and airy gallery was perfect for these sculptures, allowing visitors to wander around and to appreciate the deep chasms and hollows in the works as well as the sheer size of them.
    

A second surprise was to see Ai WeiWei's sculpture "Iron Tree"  I've only seen photos of this in indoor settings, so it was a real treat to see it outdoors.  The exhibition nudged me into checking out what was happening with Weiwei and I was saddened to see the change in him from the time of his film "Never Say Sorry" to now.  Why is it that tyrants and dictators fear artists so much?  

Come to think of it why is the Abbott government cutting funding for Fine Arts degrees?  

Let's hope this brilliant artist who designed the National "Birds Nest" stadium in Beijing gets his freedom to inspire us all again.

Can't wait to visit again!