Coffee, cafés and art

Coffee, cafés and art:

A selection

 

Botanic Garden Café.

Art exists along the façade.  Plants exist everywhere else. A lovely haunt. The Botanic Garden costs money and no dogs allowed, and the café can get crowded on weekends and during half-term.

Caffé Nero, King's Parade.

Sit in or in front of the café and enjoy the architecture of King's College across the road. 

 

Fitzwilliam Museum Garden Café.

Stone lions watch as you sip.  Up the steps and to your right, there is much art.

 

Hot Numbers.

Changing art on the walls.

Box Café.

A colourful mural adorns one wall.

 

Teapots MAA.

The Museum of Art and Archaeology is not a café nor does it have a café but it does have teapots. And they are lovely.

Grantchester, Orchard Garden Tearooms.

No art to be seen but artists frequented this wonderful place. Read all about them in a pamphlet available at the till. Virginia Woolf, Rupert Brookes et al.

I do love cafés. And I do love art. There may be a Part 2 of this topic at some point. 🙂

Permalink: https://artincambridge.blogspot.com/2016/03/coffee-cafes-and-art.html

Happy Easter!

Stained-glass window, King's College Chapel, Cambridge, c.1530.
©  Keith Edkins and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

On Easter Sunday, Christ emerges alive and resurrected from the tomb in which he was buried on Good Friday.  Where's he been these last 3 days and nights?  Well, some say that he's been down to Hell, pulling out people ripe for redemption:  people like Eve, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Methuselah and the Queen of Sheba.

Here they all kneel, in grateful humility.  Christ steps on what appears to be a stylish blue trap door; in one hand he holds a triumphant flag; his other hand clasps the hand of Abraham.  The souls are naked, as befits souls.

"Oh, Death, where is thy sting?  Oh, Hades, where is thy victory?"

(1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 55, New Testament, King James Bible) 

Have a peaceful Easter Sunday, whatever your creed may be.

Other seasonal posts:

• Good Friday

• New Year

• Advent (Series:  How to look at religious art)

Permalink:  http://artincambridge.blogspot.com/2013/03/happy-easter.html

King's College glows at night

Sound and light installation, King's College Chapel

I only found out about this hours earlier so I rounded up the troops and hurried to King's Parade.  It was a dark November evening, quite cold.  Dispersed groups of people hang around, some sitting on the wall in front, others clustered in doorways opposite.  Quite a few pedestrians and cyclists were clearly taken by surprise and stopped short.

The show is on a 15-minute loop so you arrive at any time during its run.  The 'start' happens gradually:  a circle of bright dots lights up the top of the building.

This then spreads to cover the entire façade.  The 15th-C building starts to look like a projection itself.  The dots of light are so intense, they seem real and the façade just a mirage.

The dots grow and take over everything.  They cast a light shadow in the sky.  The music is ethereal and at times a low, subliminal throb.

King's ends up looking like a huge 1970s lava lamp, with dots forming blobs and merging with one another.  The sound thrums.  Sometimes the electronic music is punctuated by the clanging of church bells; also, taxis going by and people going "ooh".

To experience the music and the motion, watch my 3 short clips. Click on the pictures to play the clip.

http://youtu.be/Ulkvk9fsopY

http://youtu.be/z7L7FuRiUSk

The next one sounds almost like Indonesian gamelan:

http://youtu.be/7FqwcPUWJPo

What and where:  Plenum, a light and sound art installation by artist Simeon Nelson.  Computer artist Rob Goodman composed the music, and  Nick Rothwell did the visuals.  King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 14-15 Nov 2012.  15 minute loops.  

Find out more about this fabulously inventive artist's work at Simeon Nelson's website.

Plenum was first shown in Toruń (Poland) (youtube clip).  It was brought to England by the Cambridge Music Festival.

We should keep this here until 25 December.  It makes a fabulous Christmas tree, don't you think?

Permalink:  http://artincambridge.blogspot.com/2012/11/kings-college-glows-at-night.html