Ten unusual places to find art

Art in unusual places

1.  An Asian restaurant
Wallpaper by Debbie Plaskett (from near Bury St Edmunds)
Spotted at the (now defunct) Dojo Noodle Bar (Cambridge).




2.  A café.
Mural spotted at the Box Café on Norfolk Street (Cambridge).




3.  A bookstore shop window.
Justin Rowe's book sculptures, seen every advent time (and beyond) in the Cambridge University Bookshop.  Read my blog post.




4.  An airforce museum.
Seen at Duxford Air Museum (near Cambridge).  Read my blog post.




5.  A natural history museum
Discovered at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences (Cambridge).  Read my blog post.




6.  A hotel
Spotted at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, on the river Cam.  Read my blog post.




7.  A swimming pool
The Diver, by Esther Melamed.
Found at Parkside Pool (Cambridge).





8. An airport
Secret Forest Trails, by Nelda Karklina
Stumbled upon a few years ago at Luton Airport.  Read my blog post.




9. A hospital
Jim Anderson's mosaic at Addenbrooke's Hospital (Cambridge). Read my blog post.




10. A round-about
Newmarket Road! (Cambridge)  Read my blog post.





Not so unusual:

Finally, you might think that libraries were unusual places for art.  Books? Yes.  Art?  Not so much.

But I learned, during my blog quest to find art in Arbury, that this is not so.  Libraries are, in fact, excellent places to find art, and it's not at all unusual to happen upon a sculpture or a wall relief in a library.  Still, though, I wanted to append these pictures at the end of my 'unusual places' list.

Some art I've come across in Cambridge libraries:

Book art at the Central Public Library in the Grand Arcade.  Read my blog post.




From Audubon's book of birds.  Seen at the Cambridge University Library and blogged about here.

Owl sculpture in Arbury Public Library.  Read about it here.

Varallo, by Samuel Butler.  Seen at an exhibition at St John's College Library in 2013.

Have you come across some art in an unusual place?

And if so, where??  Let me know in comments.

Murals in a tunnel under a roundabout

Underground ducks and cows and punts

You wouldn't expect art on the Elizabeth Way / Newmarket Road roundabout.  Yet walk down the north-west ramp to the pedestrian underpass.  Surprise!  You will find a mural in the tunnel.

The mural is painted on small shiny tiles, along both tunnel walls.  One wall is predominantly blue and shows punts on the river Cam.  The opposite side has cows on a green background of grass.

The river is seen in bird's eyeview.  Punts are cropped by the edges.  Two ducks float past diagonally.  Many short brush strokes ripple across the surface, like ripples on water.  Opposite, the ripples are blades of grass, with strange black cows moving across it, like herds of buffalo.

Movement and space are important.  I walked past; I turned round; I felt hemmed in by the walls.  Daylight streams in at both sides but the middle is lit by artificial fluorescent light.  Peering closely, you see signs of wear-and-tear:  a chipped tile, a stenciled face, bits of paper.

 All murals are public art and some are overtly political.  These ones are like children's book illustrations.  Still, they gesture towards the location of Cambridge.  Cows and river are just 5 minutes' walk away.

There are three other tunnels under the roundabout.  All have murals, painted in 2000.  Some websites give the artist's name as John Wilcox.  So far, I've not found out anything else.

Bye-bye, ducks! 

Noddingcat's video of the murals is on youtube.  

More pics of the murals at Cambridge oddities.