Sew many yarns: A trip to the summer exhibition

Thursday, 13 December 2018

A trip to the summer exhibition

Back at the end of July John and I visited the Royal Academy of Art summer exhibition. This is always a fun event and this year was a little special as the exhibition was celebrating 250 years. The work being exhibited covers the whole range from very traditional to totally wild and wacky. That's what makes it fun. Whatever your tastes in art there is sure to be something you like. This year the coordinator for the exhibition was Grayson Perry so we knew it was sure to be colourful and fun and it certainly lived up to expectations. This is a picture heavy post and while I'll indicate why I liked the pieces or chose to take a photo I'll leave you to decide what you think. This is a very small representation of a huge exhibition. I'm posting this now as I've just managed to get the photos to download properly from my phone.

As we turned into the courtyard outside the RA this is what we saw. I'm not sure what the title of this piece was but it was certainly large. As you can see from the ground it was slightly damp having been drizzling. Seconds later the heavens opened and we had to run to get indoors.

In the entrance to the exhibition was this large fabric piece. I loved the applique and the knitting. It was hanging from the ceiling and very difficult to get a picture of all of it. I got a photo from a different angle as we finished the exhibition and it shows some more of it. I've put this as the last photo.

How about this very large pink panther inter woven in the piece?

I liked this tree but it could have been red paint that had been blown around with a straw. Do you remember doing paint blowing as a child.

This one was getting quite a bit of attention.

It's always difficult to get a good picture when it's behind glass. This was the view in the first room of the exhibition.

They were serving champagne and gin so you could sip whilst viewing. We didn't bother as it seems a bit pretentious and I prefer to do my sipping of champagne with company I know. Also you can't take photos and balance a glass at the same time...well I can't.

Some of the work in the exhibition is by famous artists but most is by ordinary folk who can send in their work and hope it gets picked for display. Most of the works were also on sale but there wasn't anything that really grabbed my attention that was in my price range..

There was a fair amount of fabric art amongst the pieces on display.. This piece was causing a lot of discussion.

as was this one

I'd already seen this one on a documentary about the exhibition . I liked it more in person.

I liked this picture as it reminded me of trips to the beach

and this one is very wistful.

Some exhibits were difficult to identify as exhibits as they looked like someone had left them behind.

This dog was getting lots of comments

It had a lot of bling making up its fur

and its muzzle was amazing and made up of lots of springs

This one stood on the opposite side of the doorway. Made from nails, nuts and bolts.

This head was made using eggshells. It's very effective especially from across the other side of the room.

and then there was this bear stepping out from the carpet. People were standing in front of this one for ages.

There were also a lot of architectural models but they were very difficult to get good pictures of.

I really liked this piece mostly because it was so simple.

I also liked the model of the cassette player and the cassettes. I did laugh at one mother explaining about cassettes to her son who must have been about 12/13 years old.

This picture by David Hockney was huge but didn't get into my top exhibits list.

This one with the horses I did like.

There was string, twigs wire and grass in the items used to make it.

This picture was my favourite at the exhibition. Having been bald last summer I hope I looked half as good and as happy as she does. The title of the piece is fortitude and is part of a series.