Sunday 3 November 2013

Stories In Stone

If you live in, or near to, a city like Cambridge you can pass by sculpture and public artwork without a second glance. The colleges cannot have a courtyard or open space without feeling the compulsion to erect a statue, fountain or abstract piece in its centre. The local council, banks, shops and offices are similarly afflicted. It can all become a bit overwhelming but even so certain pieces catch the eye and the imagination.


When I was four years old I was a big fan of "The Big Soldier" on Station Road corner. I didn't know then that it was a war memorial or understand its significance. It's not actually called "The Big Soldier" but "Coming Home" and is by the Canadian artist Robert Tait MacKenzie. 



But that infatuation was short-lived and by the time I walked that way to and from school my allegiance turned to a work on the side of a modern office block. It depicts figures gathered beneath a tree, but that was all I knew. My mother went to work in that office block, I walked past it twice every schoolday but I learned nothing more, which probably means that I was daydreaming during a History lesson; a not uncommon occurrence. Then, some years later, the building was surrounded by scaffolding and builders moved in. I found myself worrying whether the artwork would disappear forever. I was pleased to find that it survived.Clearly I ought to find out more.


The office block was called Kett House, which ought to have rung a bell, but didn't. It takes its name, not from a local building firm as I had supposed, but from Robert Kett. The scene depicted is Kett and his followers gathered beneath what became known as Kett's Oak. Here, briefly, is his story:

    Robert Kett was a yeoman farmer in the town of Wymondham, near Norwich, in the sixteenth century. It was a time when sheep farming had become hugely profitable and as a result the wealthier landowners began enclosing parts of the common land for their flocks, leaving the poor to starve. The ensuing unrest became known as "The Commotion Tyme". The peasants responded by tearing down the fences and visited Kett with the intention of doing the same to his enclosures. To their astonishment Kett agreed with them and aided them in destroying his own fences and hedges. 
   Kett was an educated man and soon became their leader. The discontents assembled beneath an oak tree, Kett's Oak, to draw up a list of demands which centred on the wealthy barons giving back the common lands to the poor and allowing them to live as before. The movement escalated until their encampment numbered some 15,000 men making it the biggest settlement outside of London!
   The rebels marched on and eventually took Norwich. Armies were assembled, mostly consisting of foreign mercenaries, to confront the rebels. Finally the rebels were defeated at a place called Dussindale (don't bother looking on a map - no one knows where it was!). 3,000 rebels were killed and the following day Kett was arrested. On 7th December 1549 Kett was hanged from the battlements of Norwich Castle.
   In the four and a half centuries since his death Kett has been transformed from traitor into hero of the poor.

   I really should have paid more attention during History!



Now follow my schoolday trudge a little further and you'll come to Lensfield Road and the Scott Polar Museum. Outside is a statue entitled "Youth" which catches the eye. But high up on the wall is a bust of Capt Robert Falcon Scott, Scott Of The Antarctic himself. To my mind he looks more kindly romantic than rugged hero, perhaps because the bust of Scott (and the statue of Youth) are the work of Scott's widow, Kathleen Scott. Incidentally the model for "Youth" was A W Lawrence, the brother of T E Lawrence or Lawrence of Arabia.


But tucked away around the side of the museum, overlooking the bicycle racks of the Department Of Chemistry, is this curious construction:


He, she, or it is an inuksuk (plural inuksuit) and formerly resided in the wilds of Baffin Island, Canada. In fact it's a special kind of inuksuk in that it is a representation of a human figure and therefore qualifies to be called an inunnguaq. These are made, as I understand it, by the Inuit people of Baffin Island and elsewhere for a variety of reasons: to mark the way in the trackless wastes, as memorials to their ancestors or to guide the migrating caribou to areas where they can be slaughtered. This particular one was brought from such a wild location to this rather less exotic site where presumably he is employed to direct the chemistry students to where they can park their bicycles. Fate can be cruel.



And finally....alongside the path which leads through the grounds of Clare College stands Confucius. He is the product of the skill and imagination of Wu Wei-Shan, one of China's leading sculptors. I think it's wonderful!


Take care.   


 

15 comments:

  1. thanks for the tour of the public artwork -- all marvelous along with the stories. I especially liked the inunnguaq. I would have liked it in my wild yard before I moved to an apartment. I find primitive works captivating and full of mystic possibilities. -- barbara

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    1. I'd like one too, but I can't help feeling that it would look even better in the wilds of the far north.

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  2. Very interesting post, I enjoyed this. I love the scene on Kett House and the inunnguaq too.

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  3. This is such a varied and absorbing collection of statues and sculptures. The story of Kett is fascinating and one that I never heard before. And an Inuit and a Chinese statue? Sure would not expect to find them there.

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  4. Your post says so much about the English people. The sense of adventure and the curiosity to explore foreign land is such a part of English history. And, yes, the monetary side of those ventures was a big motivator, but still I don't think they would have gone round the world just for money. Many English, like Kett, are blessed with the understanding of the importance of compromise and sharing. How else could they have maintained close ties with the Commonwealth countries after given them independence?
    Interesting that the style of the Kett's sculpture is rather like that of the inunngaq.

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    1. I've certainly had that kind of curiosity ever since my father first showed me one of his old maps and my mother sang about "those faraway places with the strange sounding names". I hadn't noticed the similarities between the two artworks - strangely, even though the Kett sculpture only dates from the 1960s I haven't been able to find the name of the artist responsible any more than I can ever hope to find out who made the inuksuk.

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  5. Now I want to build a rock man (or woman if i can find the correctly shaped rocks) in my yard.

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    1. I'm not as fussy about what shape women are as I used to be!

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  6. Quite a diverse collection of stone monuments. This post makes me realize that living in a rural area I saw very little of this sort of landmark while growing up. Lander, WY where I lived most recently, is home to a bronze works--therefore I drove by bronze buffalo and bronze cowboys wrangling bronze cattle on my way to work.

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  7. What a wonderful tour, it has made me think of searching Salisbury for its statues. Thanks John.

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  8. Delightful post. What an eclectic group of sculptures...but all interesting. I do love the Confucius sculpture most of all but also enjoyed reading the story about Kett. (Seems greed has been a major problem since at least as far back as the 16th century, eh?)

    Seems like we Canadians see inuksuit in gardens everywhere, although usually not quite as complicated as the one in your photo. I didn't realize they'd escaped Canada and reached the UK.

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    1. Ah! I was wondering when I would get a comment from Canada! Wasn't an inuksuk the emblem of the Calgary winter olympics? Nobody here seems to know what they are - neither did I till I saw this delightful example and did a little research about him.

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  9. Love seeing these sculptures and most especially through both your young self and your present day self. Love the stories and the art.

    Thank you for stopping by the Dharma Bums. Not sure how you found us, but very glad you did.

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  10. A diverse collection of sculpture--I remember being impressed by that when we visited Cambridge. It was my first time out of the US--and expected everything to be ancient.
    Forgive my naivete.

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  11. Many thanks to all those of you who've taken the time and trouble to comment.

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