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Little Wonders

25/2/2014

After spending a bit of time with Pavilion and their Follies of Youth programme I have begun to take an interest in follies. Some of them being small wonders in a large landscape/city, which I find a very lovely concept.

I have always walked past this one on Cardigan Road and spent hours fantasizing about what it could possibly have been...until now. Someone told me that it was actually a Bear Pit intended to be part of a Zoo and Botanical Garden in Hyde Park/Burley in Leeds that didn't come to much fruition and that you could easily climb through the fence and explore it. So I did.

Panoramic Shot of the wonderful facade of the Bear Pit.

I have to admit seeing something like this in Hyde Park was rather magical. I has been restored by Leeds Civic Trust in 1966 but appears to have been rather unkempt since then, lots of beer cans etc. strewn about it and even a mattress or two which put me off my plan of returning in the night to see how it looked in the dark.

Whilst taking pictures of the facade someone tugged on my coat. It was a boy in school uniform who then said "'Scuse me mister, if you're interested in t'bear pit you can go round to 'ole in t'fence instead o' climbin' over."
I thanked him and told him I already knew about the gap in the fence and wanted to get some nice pictures of the front before going in. He said "Fair enough" and then walked off quite pleased with himself.

The caged doors on the front of the Bear Pit.

The barred door on the side of one of the mini-turrets.

One of the mini-turrets on the front of the Bear Pit.

The stairs in the other mini-turret behind the barred door.

After a little while of fawning over the facade I plucked up the courage to walk along the side and jump through the hole in the fence and into the undergrowth where I got caught on every branch on the way through. Once I pushed trough the clearing there was the giant red brick lined drop of the pit itself.

Panoramic shot of the Bear Pit's pit.

Slightly closer picture of the Bear Pit's pit.

My mind is still slightly boggled at how something like this is just sitting in Hyde Park relatively untouched yet still fairly known about (you can find more information on all sorts like this on Leodis or Secret Leeds etc.). Leeds seems to be full of little wonders and cool heritage spaces, it was even mentioned as one of the Seven Lost Wonders of Leeds in the Yorkshire Evening Post
It may not be the Taj Mahal or a great pyramid, but something like this being on my doorstep really excites me.

I am now promising myself to go looking for more amazing things like this to explore!

Modern mess seen over medieval style facade.

Back of one of the mini-turrets.

Back of the other mini-turret.

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What I Did See In January

4/2/2014

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So here is a January update on a couple of art I have seen or been involved in.

Around mid-January the art scene of Leeds kicked back into its flow with the realization of one of Dennis Oppenheim's firework sculptures MIND TWIST at the Henry Moore Institute , which was very beautiful and quite spectacular. There was even a talk on his work afterwards by Luigi Kurman who worked closely with him in Germany between 1979 and 1985. It was very interesting to hear about the art from someone who had involvement in its assembly.

MIND TWIST by Dennis Oppenheim

Then came Vantage 3: Live Art Edition which commissioned my first new work of 2014. It was very exciting to be one of 8 artists commissioned to create work for this event! Vantage 3 was part of an art extravaganza alongside Hoard and Hutch as part of the Departure Foundation's programme.

My performace 'Out of House and Home' was interactive which created a great relationship with the participants and audience.
More information and Documentation to follow soon so keep your peepers peeled!

Students from Leeds Metropolitan University had begun to take over unoccupied offices in Wellington Street to hold a series of exhibitions.

Contemporary Art Practices and Fine Art have both held exhibitions there culminating in several small exhibitions and collaborative installations.
I was great to see external exhibitions from the students and some of their very exciting work which I look forward to see develop throughout their practice.

Pavilion hosted a series of talks and discussions on Contemporary Art in Heritage spaces.
The talks came from five different perspectives; a funding body (Daniel Cutmore of Arts Council England), a producer (Linzi Stauvers of Pavilion), an artist (Harold Offeh), heritage (Patrick Eyers of the New Arcadian Journal) and academic (Nick Cass of University of Leeds).

Afterwards we were led into discussions, by a representative of our which ever perspective we were from, to consider what had been presented earlier. This gave everyone a great opportunity to see the types of people/institutions that engage with Contemporary Arts in Heritage spaces, how they do this and what they feel about it.
It was fascinating to understand so much more about this subject and has definitely gained my interest!

Daniel Cutmore talking about the Arts Council England's policy on Contemporary Art in Heritage spaces

Harold Offeh talking about his experience with Heritage and Contemporary Art

Patrick Eyers talking about Heritage sites such as 'Capability' Brown landscapes

Nick Cass discussing his working essay on Contemporary Art in Heritage spaces

I also attended steering group meetings for a Queer Culture Festival centred around the exhibition the Leeds City Art Gallery will be holding around the work of Claude Cahun and Marlow Moss starting in June.
The continuation of Pavilion's Follies of Youth programme, exploring lost 'Capability' Brown landscapes in the run up to the 300th of his birth, is also something I am going to be involved with. An exciting two year project and all research of which will be recorded on the Follies of Youth blog here: http://pavilionypp.tumblr.com/

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