Tag: Art Gallery

Explorer Beastie in the Memory Palace - CrawCrafts Beasties

Monsters in the Memory Palace

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Explorer Beastie

Well lookee here – it’s Tuesday again already! And what better way to spend a January Tuesday than to pretend we’re all on holiday? So let’s step back in time to the end of October, when Explorer Beastie and I took advantage of the pre-Christmas lull to get away to London for a couple of days. And thanks to our local guide, we discovered a real treasure we wouldn’t have known about otherwise – Pitzhanger Gallery and Manor in Ealing, W5!

After fortifying ourselves with a very delicious lunch in Soane’s Kitchen, we went to check out the exhibition.
Explorer Beastie in Memory Palace - CrawCrafts BeastiesWhat’s this then? Perhaps it will help if we zoom out a little.
Pyramids, Bodhi Tree and Roman Forum - Memory Palace at PitzhangerThis is “Memory Palace”, an 18-metre-wide sculpture by British designer and artist Es Devlin. It’s named after the mnemonic technique where memories are preserved by mentally linking them to familiar locations – I’m sure any fans of “Sherlock” out there will recognise the idea! In “Memory Palace”, each feature on this curved white landscape is a place where a significant societal shift took place.

The memories are organised chronologically, so we move from the Pyramids, the Buddha’s Bodhi tree and the Roman forum…
Roman Forum, Memory Palace - CrawCrafts Beasties

… To the New York skyline and the Berlin wall. Can you spot them?
NY Berlin Wall - Pitzhanger Gallery - CrawCrafts BeastiesMirrors on one wall and the ceiling expand the boundaries of the sculpture, and slightly change the way you see the individual elements… The same way memory can, I suppose!

There was so much to see, we could have stayed for hours.Memory Palace at Pitzhanger Gallery - CrawCrafts Beasties

Explorer Beastie also quite enjoyed the Godzilla-like feeling of striding around this miniaturised landscape.
Explorer Beastie at Pitzhanger Gallery - CrawCrafts Beasties

If you’re interested in checking out “Memory Palace” for yourself, good news! Its run has been extended until the 9th of February 2020. I’d definitely recommend getting there early, or going at an off-peak time – I’m sure we would have missed a lot of the incredible detail if it had been busy.

You can also learn more about the significant moments captured in the piece at the Pitzhanger library, which has been specially stocked with all the books that informed the installation.

Or, for anyone who isn’t planning a jaunt to London in the next couple of weeks… Es Devlin features in season 1 of the Netflix documentary series “Abstract: The Art of Design”. I watched it a couple of years ago and found it fascinating… But only made the connection between artist and artwork today while I was researching this post. Clearly my own Memory Palace could use a spring clean!

We’ll be back next week (if I remember…) with some more travelling Beastie pics! See you then!

Old Meets New in Frankfurt - CrawCrafts Beasties

Fine Art Fun in Frankfurt!

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Beastie Family, Explorer Beastie

OK, so the last couple of posts here on the BeastieBlog have been a little on the wild side…
Wild Frankfurt - CrawCrafts Beasties, Beastie HQ… But there’s more to Frankfurt than its zoo, y’know! Today, we’re going to take a trip into the city centre in search of some culture.

Even walking through the streets of Frankfurt was an interesting experience – everywhere we turned, it seemed that old-fashioned buildings were rubbing shoulders with the towering glass skyscrapers that you’d expect to see in one of Europe’s main financial centres.
Old Meets New in Frankfurt - CrawCrafts BeastiesThat said, there’s a good chance that many of these classical-looking buildings aren’t much older than their shiny modern neighbours. Like many cities in the industrial Rhineland region, Frankfurt was heavily bombed in the Second World War, and its renowned medieval town centre was hit especially hard.

This blend is clearer as you approach the river Main…
Explorer Beastie Blocking the View of the Main - CrawCrafts Beasties…Well, it would be if a certain Beastie wasn’t hogging centre stage! The Main cuts the city neatly in half, and since we needed to be on the other side, we made a beeline for that bridge up ahead.

Explorer Beastie on Eiserne Steg, Frankfurt - CrawCrafts BeastiesAnd we chose our crossing point well! This is the Eiserner Steg (Iron Bridge), a pedestrian bridge which is a great place to stop and admire the cityscape…
Love Locks on Eiserner Steg, Frankfurt - CrawCrafts Beasties… Or, if you’re Explorer Beastie, to hang out among the love locks.

On the other side, we wandered down the riverbank for a while – mostly because I am atrocious at navigation and took a wrong turn at the end of the bridge. I’m glad I did though, because otherwise we would have missed this place!
Portikus, Frankfurt, From the Riverbank - CrawCrafts BeastiesIt looks like a magical castle, lost in a leafy forest… But this unusual building actually houses a contemporary art gallery called Portikus. Portikus has had a couple of homes around Frankfurt since it was founded in 1987, the first of them being the portico of the old public library building, which is where the name comes from. The gallery finally moved into its first purpose-built home in this tower on an island in the Main in 2006.

We’ll have to save our visit for another day though, because we already had a plan! Onwards!

And here we are. Look, someone’s even opening the door for us.
Explorer Beastie at Staedel, Frankfurt - CrawCrafts BeastiesThis is the Städel Museum, home to a vast art collection that includes everything from old masters to contemporary artists from Germany and further afield.

We thought we’d start at the beginning, with the Old Masters on the top floor. That meant tackling some stairs!
Climbing up to the Old Masters - CrawCrafts BeastiesPhew! Poor Explorer Beastie needed a bit of a rest after that lot… Although he pretended he was just examining this wall of portraits.
Old Masters at the Staedel Museum, Frankfurt - CrawCrafts BeastiesThe Old Masters gallery is brimming over with incredible paintings, some of them dating back to the late Middle Ages! Since I know some of you will be reading this over lunchtime, I’ll spare you the gory crucifixion and martyrdom images that seemed to so inspire artists at that time, and share this picture of Explorer Beastie examining “The Geographer” by Vermeer instead.
Explorer Beastie Meets Vermeer - CrawCrafts Beasties

And speaking of lunch… As we made our way onwards into the modern era, we stumbled upon a Renoir!
Renoir at the Staedel Museum - CrawCrafts BeastiesThat’s it on the left – and how appropriate that it’s called “La Fin du Déjeuner” (After the Luncheon)! But if you’re still hungry, perhaps I can tempt you with some Mondspargel (Moon Asparagus)…
Mondspargel by Max Ernst - CrawCrafts Beasties
We also found a scene that looked mighty familiar in this Max Beckmann painting…
A Familiar View - CrawCrafts BeastiesHey, didn’t we just cross that bridge earlier? I suppose we were lucky that the river below wasn’t full of ice, as it is in the painting. Brrrr!

This brought us nearly to the present day. So after a quick photo opportunity at John Armleder’s Mirror Mosaic wallpiece…
Mirror Wall at Staedel, Frankfurt - CrawCrafts Beasties… We headed underground to check out the Städel’s contemporary collection.

Out of all the pieces on display, Explorer Beastie particularly wanted to have his photo taken with this Rosemarie Trockel piece – can you figure out why?
Explorer Beastie Appreciates Art - CrawCrafts BeastiesNo, its nothing to do with the reference to the 90s… Although that was always going to catch my eye! Here, look a little closer…
Closeup - Who Will Be In In '99, Rosemarie Trockel - CrawCrafts BeastiesIt’s knitted! Explorer Beastie found this particularly inspiring – he says he never realised art was in the very fabric of his being. Now he’s planning his first solo show.

So, since he had work to do, there was just time for one last shot in this awesome space…
Explorer Beastie in the Contemporary Art Floor at Staedel - CrawCrafts Beasties… Before we headed back upstairs to ground level!

And believe me, we only scratched the surface of this incredible museum… So if you ever find yourself in Frankfurt, make sure it goes at the top of your to-see list!

We’ll be back on Friday with the last of our Germany photos, so be sure to join us for a monster-filled trip finale. See you then!