Wild Uplands #2

The third sculptural installation on Penistone Hill, above Haworth, was '99 Butterflies' by Meherunnisa Asad, Studio Lél. I didn't count if there were 99 but they were certainly butterflies, created from a material that looked like marble, in different colours and textures, all pressed together in the manner of marquetry. (I think it was all natural stone rather than paint.) In themselves, each piece was really beautiful. It says the work was 'inspired by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s haunting question: 'Where will we go after the last frontiers? Where will the birds fly after the last sky?' The work explores displacement, sanctuary and longing.'

I thought it 'nice' rather than breathtaking.  I wanted them all to be facing the same way and to look as though they might be somehow rising up to fly.  As it was, they looked to me a bit scrappy and disjointed. 

Finally I came to 'Muamba Posy' by Vanessa da Silva, 'a series of interactive sculptures that reflect on the ever-changing cycles of nature on Penistone Hill, where life has adapted and transformed over time. Each sculpture invites us to explore the connections between sculpture, the human body and the natural world. They draw on this landscape’s long-distant past – some 300 million years ago, when Penistone Hill was a tropical paradise. The sculptures evoke the oversized plants and vibrant wildlife that once thrived here, while also taking inspiration from heather, bilberries, tomentils, damselflies and other plants and creatures that define this landscape today. '

Well, they were colourful and fun, quite appealing for children perhaps but, again, seemed totally incongruous in this setting. I'd have preferred to see them in an ordinary town park. 

So, not my favourite of the City of Culture offerings but I'm glad I went to see them and I'm glad these bold ventures are being commissioned. It's good to be pushed a bit outside your comfort zone.