Cherie's Place – Thought for the Week

Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in their best light.

Jennie Jerome Churchill (1854 – 1921)

Cherie's Place – Thought for the Week

The further one travels, the less one knows.

Lao-Tzu

Nelly's Moss Lake

A few shots of Nelly’s Moss Lake before we leave the Cragside Estate for our next destination.

Building Dreams – Electric Movement in Air and Water

This installation was created by Wolfgang Weileder.  A plaque by the side of the lake provided the following information:

On Nelly’s Moss Lake the artist has installed three dinghies to remind us of the power of wind and water and offers us a new visual experience and interpretation of Lord Armstrong’s inventive and visionary spirit.

The images on the sails are direct replicas of photographs to be found in Armstrong’s book, Electric Movement in Air and Water (1897) – the title of this work.

These electrical discharges were a product of Armstrong’s continued passion for discovery as he embarked upon electrical experimentation later in life.

When we visited one of the dinghies had capsized and was at the side of the lake.  It must has succumbed to some excessive air and water movement.

For those who are curious about the fourth installation that I did not manage to photograph, it was entitled Give and Take and was the creation of Jo Coupe.  It was situated in the Electrical Room which has not been open to the public for a number of years pending renovation.  The Cragside House Blog shows photos of the exhibit being installed and provides the following information:

This piece consists of 5 tanks filled with copper sulphate solution which will, over the course of the rest of the season, copper plate long-stemmed roses – a live electrical experiment! This one really represents the space it fills. The Electrical Room was the area purpose-built for Lord Armstrong to conduct his own Electrical experiments, although none quite like this.

Building Dreams – Fulmination

My representation of this installation is a photograph of a video. It shows a moment in time of a brief but dramatic video. The Cragside blog describes the video installation.

Irene Brown’s work, Fulmination, is an intense video installation in which Cragside is repeatedly struck by lightening. The video is projected through a full glass bottle and has sound as well as imagery. It is located in the Study, the shutters will be up across the windows and the room slightly darkened, very atmospheric!

Information next to Irene’s work provides the following information.

Irene Brown’s work is based on illusion, both optical and material.  Presenting an artistic acknowledgement of the significant role Armstrong played in scientific research, invention and his fascination with hydro electric power.

Situated within Armstrong’s study it implies his thought processes and ideas about this special place.

Irene Brown is a Newcastle based artist

Ted Contemplating…

… the Hydraulic Colony…

Cragside – Building Dreams

2013 marked the 150th anniversary of Cragside and a series of events took place to commemorate the occasion.  The events were designed to share Lord and Lady Armstrong’s pioneering vision.

I have previously posted a picture of the carpet bedding that was planted in the formal gardens to celebrate the occasion. Another project on display throughout the season was the ‘Building Dreams: Artworks’.   Four artworks were installed at various locations around the Cragside estate.  The works included sailing dinghies on Nelly’s Moss Lake, a live electrical experiment in Cragside House, an art installation featuring over a thousand model cranes and trucks at the Pinetum and a projection inside the house.

I was able to photograph three of them and in this post I feature Hydraulic Colony by rednile projects.  My walk to this feature led to my chance encounter with Douglas.

This work focuses on the achievements of Lady Armstrong who was pivotal in altering the landscape of Cragside by importing millions of North American Pines.

rednile have created their own ‘alien species’ in the lush green of the Pinetum, a sculpture made up of hundreds of childrens toys with hydraulic parts.

The work also references  Lord Armstrong’s influence in the industrial revolution and celebrates the notion of  ‘playing’, which is how rednile believe he made many of his discoveries.

rednile projects are artist Suzanne Hutton, Michael Braithwaite and Janine Goldsworthy who are based in the North East and Yorkshire.

*Information taken from a plaque by the installation.

Meet Douglas

Douglas is carved from a 140-year-old fallen pine within in the grounds of the Cragside Estate. The artwork was created by Tommy Craggs from Durham.

The latest edition of the National Trust Magazine provides a brief news snippet:

Tree carvings can be seen in places ranging from inner-city Victorian parks to the great landscapes of the National Trust.  We would like your help to track them down.  Please send pictures and comments to us as part of a project that includes members of the National Trust, the Woodland Trust, the Arboricultural Association and the Ancient Tree forum.
http://www.ukeconet.org

In a previous post I blogged about an owl sculpture within the formal gardens at Cragside.

Cragside – The Turkish Baths

The suite of rooms includes a steam bath, a cold plunge, a hot bath and a shower, as well as water closets and a changing room. They are the lowest and the first completed part of Norman Shaw’s first addition to the original house. His plan, which shows that modifications were still being made, is dated 5 May 1870, and Armstrong’s friend, Thomas Sopwith, recorded in his diary that ‘the Turkish Bath at Cragside was used for the first time on November 4th 1870’.

The baths were part of Lord Armstrong’s innovative provision of central heating for the whole house. The space occupied by the baths is cleverly situated between chambers with huge water-pipe coils, which, heated from the boiler to the north, were the source of hot air that was ducted up into the main house.*

*From the National Trust guidebook to Cragside.

Cragside – From the Inside