Birmingham, museum and art gallery.

Birmingham, museum and art gallery.

The last gallery I visited was the Birmingham museum and art gallery, of a the galleries visited on the 11th this one was filled with mainly older paintings and traditional nude sculptures. The entrance to the museum was dominated by an angelic sculpture and a decorative mosaic floor. 

Similarly to the Walsall gallery I then entered a section of the museum where there were cabinets filled with artefacts for all over the globe. Here the range of delicate ceramics illustrated the true skill of ancient civilisations as they managed to create such small and intricate objects without the materials and skills that we now take for granted. 

The next section of the museum I visited was a section based around faith and all the different religions. I feel that this was a really personal experience and was rather emotional. The room was sparse and dominated by a large colourful sand decoration of the floor and a large statue of Buddha. Covering the walls were quotes about what people believed faith was them. The collection was interactive and this is the part that truly got to me. There was a small washing line with small pieces of paper titled what does faith mean to you. These tiny pieces of paper were full of children's expressive writing about what their faith meant to them. Seeing how even small children have an opinion on faith and some believing in it really touched me. A small section of the room was closed away and inside this was a short film of people talking about their faith, this filed the room with sound and made it feel as if the voices of the children who wrote on the washing line was filling the room. The sculptures of Buddha was breath taking and emitted a presence due to it being positioned in the centre of the room just behind the large sand piece. 

 

The section that followed the piece on belief linked quite heavily to the theme that i have been exploring in the classroom. I have been looking at texture and often using thread as a medium for adding a different dimension to the image here there were many intricate sculptures made from thread intertwined within its self. From looking at this style of work I am interested in maybe working in a three dimensional style to portray texture and I can also explore the idea of shape and the way that can portray texture.

Within this section there were also images showing a similar idea of collage and paint to create a rather abstract but highly textured image. Seeing that their are artists that make this kind of expressive collage work on a professional scale has made me really consider carrying on this theme through my work and working towards my final piece for the faded memories and trace and time theme. 

 

The next section of the gallery is where I completed most of my observational drawing through this gallery as there were many sculptures of dancers and traditional busts. The form of these bodies made for a good subjects of my drawings. As there were many different positions it meant I could study drawing the human form from many different angels, becoming accustomed to the nature lines that follow the human body. As there were mainly female sculptures the images I drew followed curves and became quite organic.    

The last collection I visited before leaving the museum was the 'Room of Dreams'  created by Wendy Ramshaw an extremely influential jewellery designer. Her art for fine jewellery can be seen in the very delicate wire designs. Looking at her work has also made me consider adding wire to my work which maybe could incorporated into a three dimensional sculpture. 

 

Through this gallery the main subject for my observation studies was the nude sculptures previously mentioned. I also studied small aspects of some of the larger structures throughout the gallery. The gallery was also in its 130th anniversary so I decided to practice some of the typography I saw in the gallery.