The third week of the Photographing Public Art Challenge and this week Marsha is hosting. If you pop over to her blog you can read a fascinating post about the Prescott Petroglyphs 🙂
I’m going to start off by bending the rules a little – well, the guidelines at least. “The art should be visible from streets, sidewalks or outdoor public places.” – is fine and dandy but I think there are some indoor public places that will be missed if we stick strictly to that. For example, many churches have wonderful art and are open to the public for prayer and just to visit. So I’m starting this week with a stained-glass window…
…This is the west window of St Thomas of Canterbury, the parish church of Northaw. The church is dedicated to St. Thomas a Beckett, and was built in 1882. The windows were added between 1886 and 1897 and were the work of Ward and Hughes. The west window bears the dedication ‘To the glory of God a memorial to Queen Victoria’s Jubilee’ – it depicts the life of Joseph.
Talking of Queen Victoria – here’s a statue of her that adorns the Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace…
Here’s a small Mosiac in an underpass outside Waterloo station in London. It directs pedestrians to the bus station but can you tell me what’s wrong with the bus as depicted? (no ‘bus-spotter’ knowledge needed)…
To finish this week, here is a sculpture by the artist Sean Henry…
…called Woman (Being Looked At), it was part of a mini exhibition in The Economist Plaza back in 2012. The statue is made of bronze and cor-ten steel, coloured with all-weather paint.
That’s my selection for this week, gleaned from my back catalogue. Hopefully I’ll have some fresh shots next week 🙂
Images from Finchley 
Oh what a nice variety of different types of public art for this week. 😀 😀 Thanks for playing along.
Thanks Cee 🙂
These are super great. Art says so much about the culture, and having a human statue from our era tells the future something about us. Much of our current public sculpture is not realistic, but this one is. It also doesn’t depict anyone famous, which is also somewhat cultural. In the United States this year, statues that have been venerated in the past have been torn or taken down because of what they stood for. I wonder what will happen to this innocent-looking girl in the future. Thanks again for sharing. These are wonderful. I think churches count for public art and you are leading the way.
Thanks very much Marsha 🙂 There has also been a backlash against past ‘heroes’ here with statues of people with slave trading connections torn down. Images of people as they are used to be quite rare – the artist was paid to make the patron look good. Ironically, I think that the statue of Queen Victoria, while showing her status as Monarch, is also quite ‘warts and all’! I will have to share another of Sean Henry’s works in a future post 🙂
I’d love it. Yes, she doesn’t look as good as the Victoria in the Prime series, does she? Have you seen that? I love them because they give a vague impression of how difficult it must have been to make some the decisions she made.
I haven’t seen the tv series – much of my time is spent driving trucks on the pc so I don’t watch much tv. Most of my recent tv has been live sports – I’ve been watching the Tour de France (It’s a great way to enjoy some scenery!) I will try to track down Victoria on catch-up though 🙂
The wheels seemed a little “off” to me, Martin, but I really stared at the bus and that’s all I could come up with! Do tell!! 🙂 That is an amazing stained glass window, and I’m glad you included it in your offerings. Very intriguing array of art pieces!
Thanks Debra 🙂 It’s very simple -Here’s a clue… What side of the road do people drive on in the UK?
Fascinating foursome. I wonder about the last one. Woman (being looked at)? Do you know any context? Does she hate it?
I don’t know the context but the sculptor seems to capture a ‘street photography’ style in his sculptures. You can check out Sean Henry’s work here – https://www.seanhenry.com/sculpture/ – Hope that helps 🙂
Thank you for the link. I find his work incredibly sad. Just as we are. :p Mostly.
That’s interesting. I view his works as physical manifestations of street photography, capturing the ‘ordinary’ of peoples lives 🙂