Second visit to the fantastic Yorkshire Sculpture park. Loved James Turells deer shelter skyspace - missed it last time. weather - sky not great for it but lovely to be staring into the grey 'space', feeling the breeze and subtle clouds go by and then a loan leaf float through the space - very contemplative. could sit for hours. 'Iron Tree' by Ai Wei Wei and his exhibition in the chapel were also really interesting and very thought provoking - both very peaceful and contemplative spaces to view work.

Really interesting and thought provoking 'second' exhibition in the chapel -

The second part of the exhibition, Fairytale-1001 Chairs, extends Ai’s major project for Documenta 12 in Kassel in 2007, for which he brought 1,001 Chinese citizens to Kassel for 20 days, representing each person with an antique chair. This transformational experience highlighted the complications of travel for ordinary Chinese citizens. Since his arrest in 2011, Ai’s own travel has been strictly limited and his passport is currently confiscated.

Unable to travel to Yorkshire, and working from plans and photographs of YSP’s chapel, Ai has selected 45 Fairytale-1001 Chairs and has conceived an installation of nine rows of five chairs in the nave. Spaced so that each chair is solitary, they give heightened awareness of the collective and the individual.

photo by https://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/ai-weiwei-in-the-chapel-at-ysp-the-art-always-wins/

Ai Weiwei in the Chapel

Ai has selected two other works for the chapel. Ruyi translates to “as one wishes” and so alludes to wish-fulfilment. Sitting somewhere between fungal organic form and human internal organs, this lividly-coloured porcelain sculpture is one of a number of Ruyi made by Ai Weiwei that take the traditional Chinese sceptre of the same name, used by nobles, monks and scholars for around 2,000 years.

For some years the Chinese authorities have surrounded Ai’s home with surveillance cameras and every step he takes outside is recorded and monitored, resulting in 2010 with the series of works, Marble Surveillance Cameras. At around the same time, in a humorous gesture of mockery and defiance, he decorated the real CCTV cameras with red Chinese lanterns. For the chapel, Ai builds on this series and premieres the marble Lantern, carved in stone from the same quarries used by emperors to build the Forbidden City, and more recent rulers to build Mao’s tomb. Map of China, formed from iron wood reclaimed from Qing dynasty temples, shows China as an isolated land.

http://www.ysp.co.uk/exhibitions/ai-weiwei-in-the-chapel

http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/blog/ai-weiwei-chapel-yorkshire-sculpture-park/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/10852109/Ai-Weiwei-review-a-punkish-fighting-spirit.html

James Turells Deer Shelter Skyspace

'Turrell is an artist of international acclaim, renowned as a 'sculptor of light'. For over 40 years he has used light and space to create art installations which extend and enhance perception - from indoor pieces which baffle the senses, creating an illusion of infinite diffused light, to outdoor Skyspaces.

James Turrell has created the Skyspace at YSP within the Park's 18th-century Grade II Listed building - the deer shelter. His work does not alter the shape of the landscape or disturb the tranquillity of the site, but creates a place of contemplation and revelation, harnessing the changing light of the Yorkshire sky. The Deer Shelter Skyspace consists of a large square chamber with an aperture cut into the roof. Through this aperture the visitor is offered a heightened vision of the sky, seemingly transformed into a trompe l'oeil painting'.

http://www.ysp.co.uk/whats-on/open-air/james-turrell-deer-shelter-skyspace

Ursula von Rydingsvard 2014

Fantastic exhibtion - the scale of the pieces, the use of the natural materials and how she had worked with them was fascinating.

One of America’s most inventive and individual artists, with work in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, among others, von Rydingsvard has evolved a distinctive, highly personal sculptural language that has become synonymous with cedar, the wood that lies at the heart of her practice. The exhibition features wall-mounted works, monolithic structures and other complex forms, most of which are meticulously assembled from 4” x 4” cedar beams.

http://www.ysp.co.uk/channel/392/ursula-von-rydingsvard

Ursula von Rydingsvard

The first large-scale survey in Europe by highly acclaimed American artist Ursula von Rydingsvard is at YSP from 5 April 2014–4 January 2015.

The exhibition, which is the artist’s most extensive to date, illustrates the full scope of von Rydingsvard’s diverse practice, including more than 40 works of drawing and sculpture made over the last two decades, presented in YSP’s purpose-built Underground Gallery and the open air.

Features interviews with the artist and Executive Director of YSP, Peter Murray. Narrated by Sarah Coulson, YSP's Deputy Curator. Find out more at ysp.co.uk/ursula