The Bowes Museum is a nationally renowned, purpose-build public art gallery in the town of Barnard Castle containing collections of fine art, ceramics, textiles, clocks and costumes. During the Christmas break I went to visit this beautiful building on a really foggy day and by the time I was ready to leave the dark winter nights were closing in creating a really atmospheric view of the facade of the building.
One of the main attractions at the Bowes Museum is the Silver Swan Automaton; a clockwork driven device that includes a music-box in which a swan sits in a stream and appears to preen itself before catching a fish. The swan is ran by clockwork and is an extremely impressive piece of 18th century technology and in order to help preserve the delicate mechanism, the Silver Swan;s 32 second performance is played only once a day at 2pm.
The museum also housed a fantastic textile exhibition from quilt-maker, Pauline Burbidge. Her Quiltscapes explore the subject of nature and place through carefully considered layers of artworks that are spontaneous and free. I loved looking at Pauline Burbidge's work because of the fantastic use of different materials and processes; something we have been trying to do more of at university. She combines cyanotypes, freehand embroidery, monoprints and charcoal drawings to create multi-layered textile wall-hangings that are fantastic to study up close and personal.
No comments:
Post a Comment