A Tale of Two Cities

Middlesbrough on New Year’s Day is the focus for this week’s posts. Last week I was looking at Belfast on Boxing Day and the lack of human activity there. Middlesbrough, on New Year’s Day, was quiet as well. Two reasons for this could be that people were recovering from the night’s festivities but the other is likely to have been the weather!

The weather on the first day of 2014 in the north east of England (if not the whole of the UK) was miserable, wet and windy. Flood warnings have been regular for many places at the end of one year and the start of the next and I feel sorry for all those who have suffered from these and the accompanying power cuts.

However, the photo below proves that it was not bad weather everywhere all of the time. The sunset reflected in the windows of Middlesbrough Town Hall as seen from MIMA on New Year’s Eve is evidence of that. Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art is a fantastic bit of architecture and always has fascinating exhibitions – we make a point of visiting it each time we are staying in the area with family.

The current exhibition by local artist William Tillyer occupies both of MIMA’s main galleries and although there were only about half a dozen works that we personally liked, the whole exhibition was interesting with some of the works being visually quite deceptive. I am not allowed to show photos from the show but you can click the links above to find out more.

Middlesbrough Town Hall

This week’s featured StillWalks video is from Middlesbrough. Although the production for “Suburban Lakeside Walk” was done in the Winter, it was clearly much better weather than is evident in the iPhone photos I took around the lake this winter.

You can use the Donate button below to help StillWalks. Pay how much you want and receive a high quality download of this week’s featured StillWalks video – “Suburban Lakeside Walk” which features Hemlington Lake in Middlesbrough. Click the image below to watch the video. DVD Collections are available to order in the StillWalks Shop.

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A Visit to Middlesbrough – Claes Oldenburg and Haroon Mirza

The Bottle of Notes sculpture by Claes Oldenburg  is in the centre of Middlesbrough by MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art). There have been plenty of photos taken of it before now, but these are mine!

We had a short visit to Middlesbrough at Easter and managed, amongst other things, to see this, the MIMA exhibitions, the Anish Kapoor sculpture at Riverside Park (see tomorrow’s post) and had a walk round Great Ayton.

Bottle of Notes

Bottle of Notes

Bottle of Notes

MIMA

One of the exhibitions we saw at MIMA was Untitled Song by Haroon Mirza. I can’t show photos other than this wall in the gallery, but I did record part of the audio in the exhibition. Here is 30 seconds of it.

Haroon Mirza

You may not find the sound particularly easy to listen to – it’s not exactly popular music – but there was more to it than this sample and it worked well with the space and the sculptures by James Clarkson, some of which had been modified by Mirza.

MIMA just blew me away!

Last week I visited MIMA – Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art again. Every time it is a revelation! The main gallery space is fantastic and the exhibition this time was by Julian Stair and it blew me away. I could have stayed all day.

The exhibition is touring and if you get the chance, go see it. Better still, if you’re anywhere near Middlesbrough, go see it at MIMA 🙂 Here’s a taster.

MIMA

Looking out from MIMA

Julian Stair - Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair – Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair - Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair – Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair - Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair – Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair - Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair – Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair - Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair – Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair - Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair – Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair - Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair – Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair - Quietus exhibition

Julian Stair – Quietus exhibition