There is a woman lying face down in the gallery garden. She is trussed up in bubble wrap and blue strapping. Her feet are encased in concrete. It is like the scene from the Hammer House of Horror.
Yes, the new bronze sculpture New Dawn arrived on Wednesday and four blokes are now nursing hernias and wobbly knees. The bronze casting was heavy enough by herself but she had been screwed and cemented into a large rock plinth from which it was impossible to detach her. On top of this indignity at some time in her past, she had been lowered into a hole filled with wet concrete which, when dry, doubled her weight at the most modest estimate. Michael spent Friday sitting on the lawn chipping off the concrete and is now working on a cunning plan to hoist her upright and drop her into the hole he will have dug by then. Nobody is going to lift her manually again. He with the help of his engineering friend Brian will employ Stonehenge type technology to manipulate her. Pictures will be posted when she is upright and in place.
We had a great day yesterday. We were part of the Cockermouth art trail. The town was heaving with lively people. There were events happening everywhere in the most unexpected places. It was great. I did several 'Secret life of an art gallery' tours which everyone appeared to enjoy. Even some long standing visitors had no idea what happened behind the scenes at Castlegate House and nobody had been upstairs before. I did a tour of the garden, the kitchen and the store room / viewing room where we keep some of our treasures, telling stories as we went.
I am thinking about making this a regular thing - maybe every Saturday when I am around and have the (wo)man power back up.
And now we are getting ready for London tomorrow and the Henry Moore exhibition at the Tate, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition as well as seeing people and other exhibitions - we have a long list of things to do. The weather is forecast very hot which is enervating - and we aren't used to it - so we'll probably melt! I am off to India in 2 weeks so I shall regard it as training and acclimatisation.
