Edinburgh Durham Sept. 12-14

Friday, Sept 12.

2 museums today.

We went to the Scottish National Portrait Museum to see a temporary exhibit of the drawings of John Ruskin.  Ruskin is more famed as an art critic than as an artist, so we were curious.  We learned that Ruskin and Turner were close friends.  Ruskin started drawing by copying pictures from a book Turner illustrated. 
  Ruskin gifted his drawings to Oxford and many of these works displayed were on loan from the Ashmolean Museum.

Some of the works were extreme in their fine detailing, like some Durers.  No photos allowed.  These are from the ‘net.

The last one is a study of a piece of brick.  Ruskin spent 60 hours on it.

We spent the rest of our day at the Scottish National Museum.  A big, bright building with highly varied exhibits. Each room had a theme and made a comprehensible whole.  But the placement of the rooms seemed to have no order.  What order the plan showed was from top to bottom, not contiguous.

Here are some novel items.

The Singh twins, 2 women who work from NYC, use traditional Mughal Court miniature techniques, applied to contemporary subjects.  This work, entitled The Laird of Lahore, seems to show a tea party.

The actual work is about 16" high.  Our photo (no tripod, no flash, 1/20th, ASA 1250), with 774K bits is linked here:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/yourphotos?pid=6058246946486610354&oid=109870324287654031094

 The detail is not humanly possible.

This is a detail (about 2") of the surface of ceramic piece is by Kando Takshiro, who was recently a student at the Edinburgh School of Art.  He used a precious metal (gold, silver, platinum)  glaze.:

From the Scotland wing:

Phoebe Traquair, a local artist, made this religious ensemble in the 1920s for a room in a new children’s hospital.  The room was designed for the parents of a dead child to grieve privately.

We took a late afternoon wine break and enjoyed the wonderful, clear sunshine.  This photo captures the low sun going through Leslie’s pinot noir and lighting Bruce’s white viognier.

 

We went to walk at the university.  A combination of Leslie’s sore feet and Blackwell’s stopped us.  Blackwell’s is an Oxford bookstore where Leslie had an account in her student days; it was the only place to find some classical stuff.

We had dinner at a pub, sharing a venison pie.

***

Sept 13, Saturday.  

We took the tour of Scotland’s new parliament building, opened in 2004.   The architect was Enric Miralles.  The final cost was 400 million pounds, a ten-fold overrun.  In fairness, they ran into restoration issues at the attached, 17th century Queensbury House and had to revamp the security in light of 9/11.

The history of Scotland was embroidered on 100+ panels.  They call it a tapestry, but it is embroidered.  We were encouraged to add our stitch to the next panel:

The building uses many unique parts and reflects the Scottish penchant for ornamentation.  These photos from the ‘net; we forgot to bring the camera today. Various features are said to have symbolic meanings.  The parliamentary chamber and the committee rooms are completely set for broadcast.  The parliament is broadcast on line.

This is a good place to mention the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence.  The voters polls find more older people supporting a “yes” vote than younger people; men more than women.  Our inquiries come out even.  Too close to call.  

There was a long parade today by “no” supporters. 

 A banner, carried by many of the groups, stated “Proud to be British.  Proud to be Scottish.”  But we did not see a single bit of Scottish regalia or hear bagpipes.  We learned later that most of the marchers were from Northern Ireland. 

  

The voting will take place on the 18th.  Unfortunately, that’s when our prepaid tour of Bulgaria begins, so we will not be here for that.

We had lunch at the small cafe in the Parliament Building.  We split a haggis-and-bacon sandwich.   It was okay.

Across the street is the Holyrood Palace, where the British monarch spends part of her summers.  This is where Mary, Queen of Scots, was kept prisoner by Elizabeth I for 19 years.  As part of this visit, we saw an exhibition in the Queen's Gallery on British Poets Laureate called Poetry for the Palace.   Blurb at the entryway:

This exhibition celebrates the work of the current Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, at the half-way point in her laureateship.

It explores the role of the Poet Laureate, and the close relationship between poet and monarch over the last three and a half centuries. It brings together presentation volumes, original manuscripts, annotated collections of poetry and remarkable images of poets, including John Dryden, William Wordsworth, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, John Betjeman and Ted Hughes.

Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry is also represented by the work of the textual artist Stephen Raw, who has created several pieces for the exhibition.

Stephen Raw’s textual artistry looks like this:

***

 September 13 Sunday We left warm, sunny Scotland for England, by train to Durham. Upon arrival we learned that there had just been a dedication of a new memorial to the Durham Light Infantry Brigade.

We missed the dedication, but were able to attend the memorial service held in the Cathedral.  The service was started with due pomp.  First, the mayor of Durham was escorted
in with his bodyguard. This was maybe seven men in cloaks and beret type hats
carrying ceremonial staffs and axes.  After the mayor was seated, everyone rose
as the Lord Lieutenant of the county was escorted in.  (On a semantic note, the
language is not tortured into neutrality. She is the Lord Lieutenant.)  Next was
the Bishop, with his cross banner carried before him. Then many clergy and
choir.  Finally, several regimental banners were presented.

During the service, the names of those who died in 1914 were read. There were, of course,
too many.