Hull, City of Culture 2017. 'The Blade' and Weeping Poppy Window.

Hull lies just across the Humber from us in Grimsby, a short drive over the magnificent Humber Bridge.  As it is the 2017 City of Culture we plan on several visits to catch as many events as possible.  Despite this, this was our first trip we have made this year and it was well worth it: 'The Blade', Newly opened Ferens Gallery and a photo exhibition in the HIP Gallery.

The main reason for our visit was to see 'The Blade' before it was removed a couple of days later. Blade is basically a blade from a wind turbine that would usually be seen off shore anywhere along our East Coast and manufactured by Siemens at their Heddon Road plant in Hull.  It has received some negative criticism but the Guardian argues that it is not just a case of 'bigging-up' a propeller, it represents the regeneration of a neglected and often despised city that has suffered economic decline for the past 40 years.  As a sculpture, the Guardian says, it is not in the grand tradition of the art such as Richard Serra's Tilted Arc in Manhattan or Marcel Duchamp's appropriated objects or 'readymades', but it has certainly generated lively debate locally.  What really sets this sculpture apart is its cultural significance, the article says.  The tortuous journey from the factory to the heart of the old city symbolises a miraculous birth process.

I have to say that I enjoyed it.  Although I have seen many wind turbines and have to admit to being ambivalent about them, especially the huge ones that proliferate off the Lincolnshire coast and scatter our hillsides, I had never appreciated how large the blades actually are.  As can be seen from the images below it fills the whole of the square between the city hall, The Whaling Museum and Ferens Art Gallery.  In order to get it in an out a great deal of street furniture had to be temporarily removed.  Love it or hate it, it is certainly impressive.  Size apart I enjoyed its sinuous, aerodynamic curves, designed to catch the wind and which the Guardian argues echo Brancusi and Barbara Hepworth.

Well worth the visit.

A bonus of the visit was that we were able to observe the installation of the Weeping Widow Poppies which by now will be cascading out of a high window in the Whaling Museum to the ground.  Although I was unable to get to see the Poppies at the Tower of London we did manage to see them in Lincoln Castle last year.