The sun was shining this morning, so determined to get out, get the car started and give it a run and not fester in the house moping about feeling rough after breakfast and a bit of lazing around reading my book and watching Wild Tales and then Gastronuts (you were right Alison, it is *totally* up Davies and Scarlett’s street) we got spring coats on and headed off.
I’ve had an email from Hove museum in my inbox for weeks advertising the current exhibit called ‘Precious’ Be dazzled by the beauty in the overlooked and discarded.
Taking a highly innovative approach to contemporary craft, Hove Museum & Art Gallery commissioned ten artists and makers to create new pieces, and nine to exhibit existing work. Precious is the result, produced from objects which have had a previous life.
* 20 unique, show-stopping pieces – precious objects, all have had a previous life. Waste paper and fabric are transformed, landscapes made from computer parts, taps take on a new twist. Books, parts of furniture, drink cans are all reclaimed and re-made.
* 19 nationally and internationally known artists – explore where their imaginations can take you. Coming from all over the country and selected from 300 applicants, the makers reflect all aspects of contemporary craft in Britain today. For anyone who has ever glanced at a second-hand item and wondered where it came from, these artists explore where these objects can take you.
Nothing in this exhibition is what you expect.
So decided a drive over there was just what the car needed, free and a good thing to do and be able to delete the email which I’ve kept to remind me I wanted to do.
It was excellent 🙂 I paid for 2 hours parking and we were in the museum for a full 90 minutes. The Precious exhibit was mostly in two ground floor rooms and included some excellent pieces. Scalrett’s favourites were some cardboard sculptures made from old boxes of an owl and a flamingo (owl was a Cadburys box, the flamingo was rose Blossom Hill wine, I liked that ;)), Davies loved a piece with pieces cut out of a book (hard to describe and of course we couldn’t take pictures) and I was particularly taken with some framed bugs made from various bits and pieces including book spines, clock workings and watch hands. There were dressed made from paper patterns and chopped up pages from Vogue magazine, a rug made from beer cans, a fab spiders web decorated with the little circles of paper from a hole punch, mini creations from computer components and some beautifully painted computer speakers that looked like willow pattern items.
We looked in the first area and all picked out things we liked and talked about them before going into the hands on area for kids (and crafty grown ups). We were approached by a man with a clipboard who works for the museums and wanted to know what we liked, why were were visiting and what we’d like to see more of, so had a bit of a chat with him about museums, Home Ed and recycling generally. Davies and I had a go at some origami and did pretty well to get to picture 14 of 15 before we simply couldn’t work out what to do with the paper any more :). There were various collages on the walls to be added to, a wall of butterflies, a tree full of birds and a dinosaur needing scales so we collected a pack each from the front desk with templates, glue and scissors and all made a bird, then added them to the wall:
all made with recycled museum leaflets, newspapers, toilet rolls and other scraps :).
Next we went upstairs to the ‘Wizards Attic’ which is children’s toys through the ages. It’s a real memory lane trip with loads of stuff I remember from the 70s and 80s through to the likes of the Teletubbies and Toy Story that even has Davies and Scarlett feeling nostalgic :). We spent some time looking at the bedroom which is half modern and half Victorian comparing abacus and calculator, candle and electric lamp, hanson carriage and horse for playmobil racing car, slate and chalk for etchasketch. There are loads of little details it’s easy to miss like little mousehole doors in the skirting boards and so on so we lingered there a while.
We looked at some paintings and then spent some time in the ‘local’ area which talks specifically about history in Hove and surrounding areas. Scarlett listened to an audio talk about bombing in Portslade while Davies and I looked at some old pictures and architecture. Then we sat in the little cinema (only 8 seats) watching some old silent movies from 1900, 1901 and 1903. They included one about a fire complete with hand drawn and horse drawn fire engines, a comedy about someone called Mary Jane who lit the stove with too much paraffin and died and a couple of others. Very charming :).
My Dad used to love watching Harold Lloyd when I was a child and they reminded me of that. A quick look round the old fashioned cameras and then back downstairs for the second half of the Precious exhibition.
We had half an hour left on the car and were hungry (it being gone 1pm and therefore lunchtime) so peeked in at the very fancy looking tea room with proper china and cakes on doilies. It looked very lovely but I only had £10 in cash and imagined tea and sandwiches or cakes for the three of us would be more than that so we left the museum and walked up the road a little way hoping to find somewhere. It was beautifully sunny and a real feeling of spring in the air, the crocus were out in the musuem gardens.
We came upon Tescos before anywhere else so decided to nip in and get some stuff to bring home for lunch instead. I rather foolishly had misjudged quite how far we’d walked from the car and decided to pick up the few items I knew we needed at home such as flour, brown sugar, milk and butter (from my bake-off yesterday) which I regretted walking back to the car again with such a heavy bag.
We were home again just before 2pm so I made a late lunch with the french bread we’d picked up. Then as Chucklevision came on to groans all round Davies played X box for a while and Scarlett made full use of the big bag of bath bomb chemicals that had arrived in the post (finally, over 2 weeks since I ordered them) by mixing and creating potions and fizzing things. I read my book, drank tea and took some tablets for the headache I’ve been battling all week.
It had started to rain by then so I called Ady to ensure he would indeed be home as promised before Badgers so I could use his car and discovered he wouldn’t be home after all :(. So I had to allow plenty of time to get there just in case. The car was fine again fortunately, both there and back despite very heavy rain.
Badgers was really good, we had a visit from some volunteers for Hearing Dogs for the Deaf. I think we had intended to have a talk from them for half the session but due to a late start waiting for latecomers who didn’t come at all in the end, and the volunteers being passionate enough about their subject to carry on talking, plus some (actually very good) questions from the Badgers it took the whole session. They were not that used to talking to children and possibly pitched their talk a bit above them in places, also they were both quite elderly and not terribly animated or concise in their speaking but aside from the odd stifled yawn and a bit of fidgeting the kids all did really well. It was particularly timely for Davies and Scarlett having met Rupert the puppy in training for being a wheelchair assisting dog on Monday and we spent most of the drive home comparing the two and talking about Guide Dogs for the blind too.
Due to their late lunch the kids also had a late dinner with Ady getting it ready for when we got home from Badgers instead of before we went as usual. So I read while they ate and we now only have two chapters of Ted Hughes left. Rubbish gettting to sleep from both again but everyone is up early tomorrow as I’m off to work so perhaps that will help?