Happy Easter Saturday! or, The Harrowing of Hell

Have you ever wondered what Jesus Christ was doing in between his death on the cross (Good Friday) and his resurrection (Easter  Sunday)?

Well, he was down in hell.  Rescuing some of the worthy souls trapped down there and taking them straight to Heaven.  Eve, Abraham and Adam were all included.

This is called the Harrowing of Hell (or anastasis in Greek - I just love that word).

The Harrowing of Hell.  Manuscript illumination, from f.54r of MS K.21,
Canticles, Hymns and Passion of St Christ, late 13th/early 14th C.
Source:  Collection of St John's College Library, Cambridge

I'm not 100% sure of the iconography but it looks to me as if Christ is standing on the instruments of his torture (planks from the cross).  I don't know what the symbols on the planks stand for.  He's wrapped his red funeral shroud around himself, or that's what it looks like as he's not fully clothed.  And he's stabbing the Devil's mouth with a long spear-like thing which looks more like a shaft of light than anything physical.

Three souls (the middle one is surely Eve) come huddling out through the Gate of Hell.  I like the way Hell has turreted architecture.  And I love the way the naked humans are walking barefoot on the Devi's teeth.

Satan is angry red (but a different, more orangey red from the regal red of Christ's robe).  The eyes are big and bulging, as are those of a beak-nosed sub-demon baring his teeth at the divine intruder.  Two tiny comic-looking devils cavort in the background:  the blue horned one looks a bit like a cow, and the bat-winged one blowing his little trumpet seems to have jumped out of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.

Four more souls crowd together in Satan's maw.  One of them holds his face in his palm.  Their eyebrows and downturned mouths express desperate misery.  Are they among those about to be saved?  Or are their sins too great?

I like the ocular intimacy (a phrase I borrow from Mika Natif in her chapter in this brilliant book that I'm reading at the moment) between Christ and the foremost human (Adam?).  The anatomical detail is also great:  breast bones, clavicles, rib cages, diaphragms, calf muscles -- all carefully delineated.

Have a peaceful and happy Easter, everyone!


If you'd like to read more:
St John's College Library, mediaeval manuscripts

Icons and their interpretation: The Khora anastasis (great analysis of a brilliant Byzantine Harrowing fresco in the Kariye Cami in Istanbul)

Eat the bible (a sceptic's view)

Sneak preview: Arty events at the Science Festival 2014

Source:  Cambridge Science Festival.

University of Cambridge Science Festival, 10 - 23 March 2014

Plan ahead for arty events at this year's Science extravaganza.  Lots of interesting non-art stuff as well.  Visit the Festival website to pre-book.  Most events are FREE!

Visual art

Fiji exhibition.  Source:  MAA.

Art and Power in Fiji

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Downing Street. 

Exhibition open Tues-Sun.  Guided tours on Fridays 14 and 21 March, 3 pm (pre-book).  Talk on how decorative patterns make the objects powerful, Thurs 20 March 5.30 pm (pre-book)

The first exhibition on Fijian art outside of Fiji.

Fijian Barkcloth

Small Exams Hall, Arts School, Bene't Street.  Sat 15 March, 11-4 pm.

For the first time in a generation, a large pice of barkcloth from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology will be on display.

Abraham Ortelius' map of Iceland published ca. 1595.  Source:  UL Cambridge.

Pictures, Perspectives and Plans

Cambridge University Library, West Road.  Tues 11 March, 5.30 pm.  Pre-book (free).

Learn about changing styles in cartography and view examples of maps from the 15th century to now.

Painting with the Earth

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Downing Street.  Wed 19 March, 7 pm.  Pre-book

Spike Bucklow of the Hamilton Kerr Institute (one of the world's leading institutes in the conservation of paintings) talks about natural mineral painting pigments over the millennia.

Exhibit at the Wellcome exhibition.  Source: CB University

Wellcome Image Awards

Ruskin Gallery, Anglia Ruskin University, East Road (entry also via corner Collier Rd / Mackenzie Rd). 

Exhibition Mon-Sat.  Private View Thurs 20 March, 5 pm, with a talk by the Wellcome Trust at 7 pm.

See images that bring to life medical discovery, from microscopy to illustration. 

ABOUTNESS

Live art performances in response to neuroscientific research, incl. painting, drawing, video installation, in situ drawing and live art performance.  Pre-book.  £3.

Venue to be announced: check the booking page.

Display at the Sedgwick Museum.  Source:  University of CB, Museums and Collections

The Art and Science of Curation

Polar Museum, Lensfield Road.  Thurs 20 March, 6 pm.  Pre-book.

Join a panel of curators as they explore the definition and role of curation across arts and sciences.  Presented by University of Cambridge Museums.

Egyptian Blue: The First Synthetic Pigment

Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street.  Wed 12 March, 1.15 pm.

Find out about making and investigating this pigment; run by two conservators (Antiquities).

Conservation Conversations

Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street.  Fri 14 March, 5-7 pm; Sat 15 March, 2-4 pm.

Listen to talks on how objects are conserved and preserved.

Infrared technology at the Fitz.  Source:  labbulletin.

Infrared Light on Manuscript Illuminations

Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street.  Wed 19 March 1.15 pm.

A presentation by the research associate (Manuscripts and Printed Books).

Photography

Human Lymphocyte by David Scharf. Source: Royal Photographic Society.

International Images for Science Exhibition 

ArtCell Gallery, Cancer Research UK, Li Ka Shing Centre, Robinson Way. 

Exhibition open Mon-Fri.

See scientific photographs showing images from distant galaxies to subatomic particles.  Also an opportunity to discover this little-known venue (I hadn't heard of it).

Engineering Captured on Camera

Michaelhouse Café, Trinity Street.

Exhibition open Mon-Sat.

See entries from the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering photography competition.

Source:  Cambridge Science Festival.

 

Does any of this tickle your fancy??  Please comment below!

Permalink: http://artincambridge.blogspot.com/2014/02/sneak-preview-arty-events-at-science.html

Sneak preview: Arty events at the Cambridge Science Festival

University of Cambridge Science Festival, 11 - 26 March 2013

Source:  Festival brochure cover by Tim Parker.

Plan ahead and pre-book!  Choose from hundreds of events at the Cambridge Science Festival whose guest director this year is Benedict Cumberbatch.  I have picked out for you the best of the art-related science events.  So have fun choosing how arty you want your science to be this March!

Visual arts

Map it

Kettle's Yard. Free drop-in.  12-24 March 2013 (but closed on Mondays), 11.30-5 pm. 

Wales-based artist Anne-Mie Melis will a family-friendly photomontage to encourage you to find your own connections between art and science.

Caught on camera:  engineering in action
Michaelhouse Café, Trinity St.  Free exhibition.  11-23 March (closed on 17th).  8 am - 5 pm.
Entries from the photography competition at the Department of Engineering.

Science and the Renaissance printing press: a fruitful encounter

Cambridge University Library, Morison Room. Free talk. Wed, 13 March, 5-6 pm. Pre-book here.

View some of the earliest scientific incunabula from the library's collections.  Medical, astronomical, astrological and mathematical books were illuminated by hand and decorated with woodcut illustrations.

While you're in the Morison Room, use the opportunity to look at the stonecarved letterwork by the Kindersley workshop, displayed on the walls.

The American woodsman: John James Audubon and The Birds of America

Cambridge University Library, Morison Room.  Free talk. Mon, 18 March, 5-6 pm.Pre-book here.

Learn about and view The Birds of America by the French-born naturalist John James Audubon, one of the most lavish plate books ever produced (first published 1827-39).

White Gyrfalcons, by J.J. Audubon.  Source: Wikipedia.

A goodly spring of flowers: early botanical books in Cambridge University Library

Cambridge University Library, Morison Room.  Free talk. Wed, 20 March, 5-6 pm. Pre-book here.

Learn about early botanical books, from 15th-century herbals illustrated with woodcuts to elaborate 18th-century plate books.

Biological design:  the history and future of plant architecture

Sainsbury Laboratory Auditorium, 47 Bateman St.  Free talk. Wed, 13 March, 7.30-8.30 pm.Pre-book here.

A talk about the history of plant architecture but the main arty reason to go is that you'll get the chance to peek into the award-winning Sainsbury Lab (normally closed to the public).  Find out what's great about the Sainsbury Lab in my blog post here.

The science behind conservation:  caring for museum collections

Fitzwilliam Museum.  Free talk and tour. Fri, 15 March, 2-4 pm.Pre-book here.

Peek behind the scenes of the Fitz and find out about conserving artefacts, saving them from the effects of daily life, from sunlight to pests.

Imagination: the door to identity

Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Downing Site, Downing Street. Free talk.  Sat, 16 March, 11 am-12 pm.

Behavioural psychologist Nicky Clayton and artist Clive Wilkins explore the nature of imagination.  Read details on a previous version of this talk.

Source:  Festival brochure cover.  Detail.

St John's College and the physical sciences

St John's College, St John's St, Old Library.  Free exhibition. Sat, 16 March, 11 am - 4.30 pm.Pre-book here.

An exhibition of college members to science but the main arty reason for visiting is the chance to wander around the Old Library (opened in 1628), admire its Jacobean Gothic architecture and its Victorian stained-glass windows.

My life as a dinosaur fanatic

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Downing St.  Free talk. Thurs, 21 March, 6.30-7.30 pm. Private view of artwork from 6 pm. Pre-book here.

The internationally renowned palaeoartist Bob Nicholls talks about his life as a professional dinosaur artist and fanatic.  

Leviathan (Jurassic), © Bob Nicholls.  Source:  http://www.paleocreations.com/imagePage.php?id=6

Malaria: perspectives from art, science and  history

St John's College, St John's St, Castlereagh Room.  Free talk. Fri, 22 March, 7.30-8.30 pm. Pre-book here.

Artist Deborah Robinson explores the world of malaria research at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.  Speakers from the arts, genetics research and medical history discuss their experiences of malaria.

Poetry in the museum

Step inside

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA), Downing St.  Free poetry performance. Tues, 19 March, 7.30-8.30 pm. Pre-book here.

Poets-in-residence Daljit Nagra (MAA), Ann Gray (Botanic Garden) and Jo Shapcott (Polar Museum) present highlights of their work, inspired by Cambridge museums and collections.

Click on their names to read a poem by each.

Films beyond the movie theatre

Travelling Salesman

Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Rd. Screening. £5.50. Thurs, 14 March, 6.30-8.15 pm. Pre-book here.

See the award-winning indie film Travelling Salesman about four brilliant mathematicians.

Arctic film week: voices from the north

Cambridge Arts Picturehouse (in partnership with the Cambridge Film Trust and the Polar Museum). Screenings. 17-24 March. Pre-book here.

A series of films by and about the Arctic Inuit of Canada.

The illustrations for the Festival brochure and website are by Tim Parker who graduated from the Cambridge School of Art last year.  Click here to visit Tim's tumblr blog.

Read the entire programme of events at the Science Festival website.
All the info above is from the Science Festival brochure (also available at the website).

Have a lovely arty (and 'sciencey') Sunday!

Source: Festival brochure.  Illustration: Tim Parker. 

Permalink: http://artincambridge.blogspot.com/2013/02/university-of-cambridge-science.html

Book art in the library

Cambridge's Central Library has a café on the second floor with windows that overlook the shoppers milling about the mall of the Grand Arcade.  And it was here that I spotted this work of art.




Books fly across three panels like birds, embedded in a white sky of thickly impastoed paint.  Others swim in a deep blue mass of compacted pages and spines.




It's half-way between a 3-D sculpture and a 2-D painting:  it's a kind of book relief.





The books are real books. They have been painted, cut, glued, ripped, propped, defaced, rammed and generally 'made strange'.  Thick cracked paint drips onto them.

We're not used to seeing books as 'mere' objects:  paper and cardboard pulp. Most of us may quail at throwing a book in the bin or using a book to light a fire -- even if it's a book we hate.




But here, books are reduced to material objects. 

Or are they revealed as what they in fact are?  Blocks of rectangular paper with black lines of print, bound together by linen or cardboard?

They remind me of my favourite novel, Italo Calvino's postmodern If on a Winter's Night a Traveller (1979; original Italian title: Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore). 

In Chapter 7, one of the characters (Irnerio who never reads books) explains that he makes sculptures out of books:

Faccio delle cose coi libri. Degli oggetti. Sí, delle opere: statue, quadri, come li vuoi chiamare. Ho fatto anche un'esposizione. Fisso i libri con delle resine, e restano lí. Chiusi, o aperti, oppure anche gli do delle forme, li scolpisco, gli apro dentro dei buchi. È una bella materia il libro, per lavorarci, ci si può fare tante cose.

Here's my translation:

I make things with books. Objects. Yes, works: statues, pictures, whatever you want to call them. I've even had an exhibition. I fix the books with resin, and they stay there. Closed, or open, or I may even give them shapes, I carve them, I open up holes in them. It's a beautiful material, the book, to work with, one can do so many things with it.

Does your local library contain any art?  Have a look.  You might be surprised -- I was!

What and who:  The plaque next to the work informs us that this is Flight of Imagination, created "by young Cambridgeshire artist Aaron Lewis especially for Cambridge library cafe. It was produced using only salvaged books."

(I don't know what a salvaged book is.  Is this sentence supposed to make us feel better?  As in:  no books were harmed in the making of this art.)

Where:  Central Library, Grand Arcade, Cambridge.


Related post:
Justin Rowe's magical book sculptures

Permalink: http://artincambridge.blogspot.com/2013/02/book-art-in-library.html