An interesting-sounding free exhibition is opening tomorrow at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham. Mysterious Depths: Dreams, Mortality and the Subconscious runs until 14th Sept 08…
“An exploration of the mind, fantasies and fear of the unknown is central to this enchanting and haunting display of prints […] Three recurring and interconnected themes can be traced: the mystery of dreams; the concept of the human subconscious and inner vision; and the unavoidable and unknowable realms of our own mortality.”
This show might be usefully combined to make a ‘themed’ day, by also visiting the Birmingham
“Why have terrifying monsters always lurked in our imagination? Myths and Monsters is an entertaining, educational and dramatic mix of animatronic mythical creatures and some of the Natural History Museum’s own specimens and replicas. […] We have also raided our store rooms to find monsters from around the world from the museum’s collection — look out for Chinese and Japanese dragons, lizards from the natural history collections, Egyptian amulets, sphinxes and griffons and mermaids…”
One easy way of combining the two shows would be to visit BM&AG’s Myths and Monsters on the afternoon of Weds May 28th (I’d expect the inevitable school parties will have vanished by 3pm), then walk over to the Ikon to catch the first free ‘Art Bus’ at 5.25pm — the bus will ride between 5pm to 9pm from the Ikon, and the RBSA and down to the Barber (Mysterious Depths) and back again…
A few days later, on 31st May, the UK Games Expo in Birmingham
“Living Dungeon [ that ] transports its teams of six players into a specially constructed, full-size, medieval-fantasy dungeon where they are menaced by monsters, tormented by traps and perplexed by puzzles in an adventure which seeks to capture the essence of Dungeons & Dragons; all against a time limit.”
And if you get inspired by all that fantasy monstrosity, there’s an Arvon Foundation Writing and Myth Weekend at the Compton Verney gallery in Warwickshire, 5th to 6th July 08…
“To complement our summer exhibition The Fabric of Myth [ runs from 21st June ], explore how modern writers are influenced by myth with poetry and creative writing workshops, readings and talks by leading novelists and poets. Presented in collaboration with The Arvon Foundation.”
And as we move further into July, down at the Victoria Gallery in Bath (not too troublesome to get to from the Midlands, on a train), there’s what promises to be a major two-part show exploring the visionary dream of the English landscape — Ancient Landscapes, Pastoral Visions: Samuel Palmer to the Ruralists (26th July to 7th Sept 08 – Part 1 / 13th Sept to 19th Oct 08 – Part 2)…
“…plots the course of visionary English landscape painting to the present day, following themes of: Ancient Landscapes, Trees, the Gothic, the Traveller and Nocturnes. … Starting with Samuel Palmer and William Blake […] featured artists
include Henry Moore, Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer and Graham Sutherland. [ through to ] the Ruralists.”
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by D’log :: blogging since 2000 » Thursday links lucky-dip, No.6
10 Jul 2008 at 09:43
[…] in Coventry // Yet another local ‘monsters & fabulous creatures’ themed exhibition to add to my list. “Seeing Dragons In The Clouds: the art of imagination” is now on at the Bilston Craft […]