From Mammoth To Missouri

Having not had to think about where to go, eat, sleep or get online for a few days, getting back on the road was a bit of challenge. However, after the initial shock and a short period of mutual snarling we found ourselves heading into Mammoth Cave. This is the longest cave complex in the world at over 300 miles (and still counting) and it was awesome. I’d never actually seen stalactites and stalagmites before and it was fascinating to hear how they are formed and about the reactive properties of limestone in general. It was also fascinating to discover that the temperature of any large cave remains at a constant average for the area around it regardless of the season, so Mammoth Cave is always at the average temperature for Kentucky.

After a very nice drive out of the Mammoth Cave Park (with sightings of wild turkey, deer and what we think was a coyote) we got back on the road heading west eventually stopping at the Econolodge in Russellville. At $75 this seemed rather expensive compared to our usual choice of cheapskate, seedy motels but it provided a good breakfast (unusual in motels), a flat screen TV and free, if erratic, wireless access. The following morning there was light rain, the roads were empty and the clouds were hanging low over the autumnal trees, hills and fields of south western Kentucky. Accompanied by an excellent soundtrack of modern Americana donated by our friends in Frankfort, the drive out of Russellville was quite dreamy….

Our next stop was supposed to be Paducah and we did stop there… briefly. I’d been told about a programme that had actually paid artists to go and live in Paducah’s empty buildings to try and kick start creative regeneration in this rather depressed and unattractive town. It sounded like a great idea so I was interested in seeing how it had worked out. Unfortunately there wasn’t a sign off the main drag even indicating a downtown, let alone an art area or even its famous quilt museum! So all Paducah seemed to be was a huge, cheap, drive-thru strip mall and by the time we realised it was too late to go back and look for a turning that may, or may not, have taken us to a bunch of artists! However, we did end up accomplishing something. Part of the plan for this trip was to pack very little, buy clothes from charity stores as we went along and then return them to charity stores before we left. So we were delighted to spot a large Salvation Army store in Paducah where I bought a sartorially criminal but very warm coat for $5!

Nice drive from there too and ended the day in Charleston, Missouri after crossing the bridge over the mighty Missisippi....

Frankfort, Kentucky

When we got to a friend’s house in the Kentucky state capital of Frankfort, they were still in Europe but due back in couple of days. They have a really nice house and it was great staying there and being able to walk into Frankfort and check things out. The first day we went for breakfast at the White Light Diner and it was definitely the best Eggs Benedict I have ever eaten.

The historic district is really nice and on the last day we went for a tour round the old capitol building which is full of fascinating architectural, arty and historical stuff including a bizarre and very rare harp piano. In the lobby there is a staircase which is beautiful as well as being an incredibly ingenious piece of engineering and you can visit the original senate and house of represenatatives complete with spittoons, ink pots, quills and copies of historical proceedings, letters and legislation from very politiclaly interetsing times! Round the corner the Kentucky Historical Society is also a fascinating trip and I finally discovered the meaning of the line in Sixteen Tons that says: ‘I owe my soul to the company store’!


However, the place where we probably spent most time in Frankfort was the truly wonderful ‘Poor Richard’ bookstore. The bookstore is arranged over two floors and there are lots of old prints and paintings filling almost all the available wall space. The second floor is crammed full of dusty old books, maps and magazines with old ceiling fans spinning delicately above.

We were in there for about three hours and could have stayed longer but it was closing so we had to adjourn the Coffee Tree café next door. Discovering there was going to be live music we came back later and had a fantastic evening listening to an excellent piano, double bass and sax trio who played a very tight mix of jazz, blues and gospel. Owing to the fact that spouse and myself constituted about 50% of the audience we ended up chatting to the musicians quite a lot which was a lot fo fun. Only the bass player is a full time musician, the pianist tunes pianos for a living and the sax man is a sociology professor.

However, Kentucky is probably more famous for racehorses than anything else and it was inevitable that we would see some horses along the way so here they are….

.... apparently, it is not unusual to see rather large planes from the UAE parked up at Lexington’s rather small airport…

Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

Going south from the Skyline Drive, we crossed straight onto the Blue Ridge Parkway which was first set up as a scenic driveway in the 1930s. The first US national park was actually Yellowstone, set up way back in 1872 and there are now hundreds of national parks monuments and forest all over the US. Apparently, many of them were furiously contested by logging and other companies with business interests in the land and its resources. As a consequence individual Acts of Congress were used to create each park which made them untouchable. It’s a shame that such far sighted political will has become so compromised in more contemporary environmental debates.

The Blue Ridge side is less developed in terms of trails and lodging than Shenandoah Park but there are several roads leading off the parkway to small mountain towns so it’s pretty easy to find cheap motels. It’s also much more interesting because you get to see and meet some real places and people. The Buena Vista Motel was great and downtown was only a short walk so we were able to go out for dinner and then walk back watching a full moon rise above the mountains. We also found out exactly how many people live there.

Further down the parkway the Blue Ridge Motel in the Meadows of Dan was also a treat.

This tiny town was an absolute gem consisting of little more than a couple of stores, a farmers market, a restaurant, two gas stations and a church.... although there were probably more further up the road! I never cease to be amazed at just how many churches there are in this country, especially when you are out in the more rural areas. There seem to be hundreds of different denominations and a dedicated dictionary to work out exactly who they all are could be very useful. There are Baptists, Unitarians, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, Apostolics, Charismatics, Nazarenes, Presbyterians, Evangelicals, all sorts of Bible Churches and Assemblies and a constantly expanding collection of Baptist splinter groups like the Primitive Baptists. Then there are the Fundamental Millenarians and the Foursquare Gospels… whoever they are. 

Most of the churches have signs along the roads sometimes humorously advertising their presence as in ‘Invest in Heaven, God’s stock is up’.  However, seeing ‘Prepare to Meet God’ on a huge billboard as you enter a four lane highway can be a bit disconcerting! How some of these small communities can sustain so many different churches is a complete mystery to me, as is the amount of money that seems to be generated through some disturbingly cynical TV evangelism.

Anyway …. back to the heaven sent and Act of Congress sanctioned, Blue Ridge Parkway. Much of the parkway goes through the Thomas Jefferson National Forest so you are surrounded by tall trees on both sides of the road for much of the route with mountain views stretching off into the blue distance at almost every twist and turn of the road.

I enjoyed this much, much more than the Skyline Drive and most of the hikes are short which means you get all the gain with none of the pain as in the Yankee Horse Trail. This was a rocky, waterfall very close to the road and it still had the old railway tracks from when it was a logging station. It also had an amazing chunky rock.

There were a couple of longer trails further on including the beautiful Otter Creek Trail which meanders along the bank of a rocky creek before going up into the forest, past huge volcanic rock formations and then back down to the creek. This was definitely another Virginia Trail highlight as was the Blue Ridge Music Centre where we got to see some excellent live music. There is a musical heritage trail through Virginia and the Centre explained a lot of the origin and development of Blue Grass and Mountain music. The centre will become a state of the art museum next year which is good news for ethno-musicologists and musical obsessives everywhere. The museum reminded me of another US trip we did in 2002 which took us on the jazz, blues and country music trails all the way up from New Orleans to Chicago through Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. There were a lot of signs for churches down there too and the only other signs you saw were for prisons so I guess the only other option is the military!

Another musical diversion ended up being the town of Floyd where several resident master blue grass and mountain musicians are teaching (sometimes for free) in order that the traditions are continued. They are supplied by Floyd’s own instrument maker and on Friday nights the town’s central street is open to musicians. There are actually small performance bays built into the sidewalks! There are also numerous artists and craftspeople who live in the surrounding areas and they are slowly moving into The Station which is a new but small area of shops, galleries and studios.

We finally turned off the Parkway at Galax, heading West again towards our next friend stop in Frankfort, Kentucky. We didn’t have a rattlesnake moment on the Blue Ridge parkway but we did have a few anxious visibility moments. If you are above or below the clouds you’re fine but at that elevation in between….

These boots are made for hiking...

My last serious hiking boots disintegrated in Algonquin Park in Canada in 2006 and apart from the mega hike in Fujairah earlier this year (which I managed with a new pair of trainers) I haven’t needed new ones…. until now. So it was great to find a store selling all sorts of cool stuff related to being in mountains just outside Waynesboro.

Five minutes up the road from the store was the entrance to the Shenandoah National Park which is a huge area in the Appalachian Mountains filled with forests, waterfalls, peaks, vistas and over 700 miles of hiking trails. The Skyline Drive cuts through the whole area and has lots of places to stop and look at views across the Shenandoah Valley and other mountain groups within the Appalachian range.

The only disadavantage is that getting out of the park to cheap motels involves serious driving so we decided to stay in cabins inside the park for three nights instead. This is much easier to acces the Trails and the new boots were well and truly tested, up and down rocky paths, through leafy forests and across stony creeks. The views at the top were awesome and at times we were really up in the clouds.

The fall colours were just starting to turn which meant that we got to see the variation without the crowds that descend in a week or so when the colours are fully out. It’s great being there midweek too as there’s no problem finding somewhere to stay and you almost always get the trails to yourself, especially the hard ones.

The Cedar Falls Trail was by far the hardest – very steep and very rocky – but there hasn’t been much rain this year so the water levels in the falls were pretty low. In general the more rain there has been the more spectacular the falls are. However, a very close encounter with a rattlesnake made the Cedar Falls rather more exciting than we’d anticipated. The snake fell down a rock and landed next to spouse’s foot. It was so sleepy that spouse assumed it was dead so didn’t panic. The snake then made a move towards the falls, rattled half-heartedly and slid into the water. It curled up and floated round for a while then made a spectacular if bizarre dive, straight down into the fall.

There were a lot of other wildlife encounters when we were out on other trails especially deer.....

...  chipmunks, squirrels, butterflies, very hairy caterpillars and we also caught a glimpse of a young black bear which was a real treat. In the end we only managed about 6 or 7 of the trails but a couple of them were pretty long and 6 hours hiking feels like a hell of a lot when you haven’t done it for while but this is always worth the pain....

In and out of New York ...

From Newark we took the short train ride to Penn station New York where we got the smallest and most overpriced hotel room in the world. The closet was too small to fit either of our bags in so they stayed in the room where they took up about 50% of the floor space. But hey… it’s New York, we hadn’t reserved and the UN happened to be in town so we blamed them.

The last time I was in NYC was about 10 years ago and it’s very interesting seeing how the city has changed (and how I’ve changed!) but one thing that still shocks is the sheer number of homeless. There are some serious and vocal mental health issues on the NY streets and seeing homeless people in wheelchairs or with walking frames or other obvious physical difficulties seems much more common than I’ve seen elsewhere.

After the tiny hotel room we spent a couple of nights at a friend’s place in Brooklyn Heights and he can just see the statue of liberty between two huge cranes from his back window. This is not as bad as it sounds.

We went out for a several walks around his neighbourhood and it was weird looking over the water to where the twin towers used to be.

Just under Brooklyn Bridge we happened across the local ‘Art under the Bridge’ festival which is an Art Trail that takes over this area and includes work in some of the huge old dilapidated warehouses there.

It was great to see some of this and we also came across the car we wish were hiring.


We didn’t hang around in New York for long but while we were there we asked everyone we met where they would go if they had two months and were heading to the west coast. From a mix of their suggestions, our own ideas and the places we have friends we began to put a route together. Then we headed out to Hamilton, New Jersey to pick up the car (much, much cheaper than hiring it in New York) and hit the road proper.

First destination was a friend in Fredericksburg, Virginia but before arrival there we spent one night in a classic gas, food, lodging strip off Interstate 95 just outside of Elkton, Maryland. I LOVE motels and the cheaper the better. They have everything you need – a bed, a fridge, a TV and complete privacy unlike hotels.



You can sit there mindlessly flicking zillions of TV channels and get a good overview of political views in the US. I also find the commercials fascinating and very revealing about the culture. The ones for medication are particularly educational. In the US it seems there is a pill for everything. You don’t have to change your diet or your lifestyle or inconvenience yourself in any way..… just take the pill! However, they are legally obliged to also list all possible side effects including death but these are raced through at such incredibly high speed they are barely understandable. It was a lot of fun flicking between these commercials and the live health care debate.

Fredericksburg, Virginia is famous for being a huge Civil War battlefield. In fact this whole area is littered with Civil War history and battlefields. It’s a very pretty town on the banks of the Rappahannock River but is such a tourist spot it’s hard to see beyond that or find a normal shop! The place is full of antiques and historical memorabilia, old plantation houses and George Washington’s mother’s house. Mary Washington also gives her name to Fredericksberg’s university.

 Another old university town, Charlottesville, was our next scheduled stop. We were intending to spend a couple of nights there especially because Charlottesville’s art centre and galleries always have open evenings on the first Friday of every month. However, this was not to be. We arrived and found that every single hotel, motel and inn was booked solid. There was a U2 concert so thanks to bloody Bono we ended up a 30 minute drive away in Waynesboro . Because that was actually nearer to where we were heading we didn’t go back. Instead we just went directly from there to the most beautiful and wonderful Shenandoah Valley……

 

Newark doesn't completely suck....

Newark, New Jersey has a big airport serving NYC so most people don’t stay here unless they arrive late or are actually coming to Newark for a conference because it does seem to have a lot of conference facilities. However, another reason people don’t stay is that everyone thinks Newark (and New Jersey in general) sucks! In fact the only positive reaction I got was about the great view of the NYC skyline if you are in the right place in Newark which fortunately we were!

This was sunrise over NYC from the 10th floor of the Newark Best Western and was a very nice start to the trip. A walk downtown was also very pleasant and I don’t think Newark deserves such a bad press. It has a good museum (which unfortunately doesn’t open till midday) and quite a few old and architecturally diverse churches and other buildings. Reminders of Newark's industrial past are very visible especially in some of the huge old iron railway bridges. It also has a great performing arts centre with a whole walk of fame consisting of bronze paving slabs showing everyone famous who comes from New Jersey. Everyone knows about Bruce Springsteen but Jack Nicholson, Sarah Vaughan, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Tony Bennett, Whitney Houston and too many others to remember are all from New Jersey.

Although we were up too early to see much else, we did bump into Patrick Alexander, the proprieter of the Cutting Zone....

 

He opened up his barbershop 11 years ago after a stint in the US army and as well as cutting hair he paints. Other members of his family paint as do several of his friends so…. he turned his barbershop into an art gallery so he could show all their work. He also has a keyboard and amp in there so he and I guess anyone who can play are welcome to come in and belt out a few tunes as well. So along with the view, the architecture, the walk of fame and the iron bridges Ther Cutting Zone is definitely another Newark highlight.

Relocated again... temporarily

If anyone out there is still reading this, my apologies for the long delay BUT I have been very busy with:

The E17 Art Trail Blog

... I even got paid for it. Rather annoyingly I am still waiting to be paid for a job I did in the UAE in March! So 6 months and counting. Will I get ever it??? Place bets now...

Anyway..... I am now re-locating again. This time it's only for two months but it's the BIG EAST - WEST US ROAD TRIP. Planning this trip kept myself and spouse sane while marooned behind the high walls of a university campus in Sharjah without a car for 10 months. Given that spouse and I are still unemployed, we concluded that now is the time to head out on the US highway.

So.... .. watch this space because I will try and blog about the whole trip and the art I find on the way. Hopefully it will be as off beat and underbelly as possible.... it is definitley not going to be the MOMA and the Metropolitan dahhhling!

Araam – Breathing Space

Araam – Breathing Space
Zarah Hussain & Halima Cassell at the Mid Pennine Gallery

This is the first exhibition I have seen since being back in the UK but the themes and content very much connect to some of the areas of interest I was able to explore in the UAE. Both artists in this show are British with roots in Pakistan and both consider aspects of this identity in their work. However, my primary interest in both of these artists is how each contemporises the ancient and complex art of geometry.

I am familiar with Zarah Hussain’s previous work where watercolours or acrylics were used predominantly as mediums for classical geometric reproduction. This show is very different. It consists of six, large oil on gesso panels with a seventh in progress in the gallery itself. Two small multi-sided pieces are redolent of her earlier work in that they conform to classical geometric discipline and aesthetics but all the others contain varying degrees of diversion. The work was all completed this year and each piece is displayed in the order it was created. This chronological sequence essentially allows the viewer to follow Hussain’s unfolding argument with geometric orthodoxy.

After the two small pieces comes the most obviously breakaway piece in which elements of each geometric motif are drifting away from their central core. This gives a palpable sense of disintegration and expansion. The next panel seems to contain the essential argument in itself as if some reassembling was necessary after the dilution in the previous panel. However, while many of the individual geometries are more robust, the very act of placing them in non-tessellated and sometimes overlapping positions is another subversion of traditional form.

The next panel is circular and again contains overlapping motifs, but this time they are very mixed. Some are basic and almost transparent geometric sketches, while others are densely complex both in colour and form. There is a freedom here which suggests that the argument has been resolved but the disparity is slightly disorientating and prompts much closer scrutiny to find an underlying structure holding it all together. However, it is the last piece that makes the biggest visual impact. This final square panel contains 25 identical geometric shapes with a colour code running through each line that seems both ordered and random at the same time. It demands attention and plays visual tricks but perfectly exemplifies the end of a process in which traditional has been meticulously transformed into contemporary. The artist has so mastered and understood the rules of geometry that she is now able to manoeuvre independently within the boundaries that those rules create. It is interesting to compare this development in geometry with the other 'Islamic' art of calligraphy. Hussain has essentially arrived at the kind of conclusion that has for some time, allowed contemporary calligraphers much greater freedom of stylistic interpretation.

Halima Cassell’s work in this show is representative of her wider sculptural practice so does not all directly reference geometric pattern. There are a range of objects in wood, stone and clay including a tall wooden totem evoking pregnancy. Although obviously linked to the subject, the phallic element of the structure dominates and this made it hard to take completely seriously. A number of small clay and smooth stone pieces suggest possibilities or ideas in progress rather than conclusions and this works perfectly in the context of the whole show. Both artists are working in residence at the gallery and there are concept and design sketches on the wall giving a sense of the process before the work reaches its final form.

What I love about Cassell’s work, however, is the incorporation of geometry into 3D sculptural forms and the remarkable way in which she can make clay give the impression of being wood. From a distance it is not apparent that a bowl-like sculpture with internal raised geometric patterns is carved from clay. Similarly a large round piece appears as if it could be made of wood.

Applying a carving technique commonly used on one material to another but with an outcome that fuses both, is a fascinating process in itself. These objects were definitely highlights for me and I also liked the more random pieces that could almost be found objects, especially the jagged chunks of wall with matching holes.

Hussain and Cassell approach the subject of geometry in very different mediums but both interpret their subject to connect across time and culture. Some of Cassell’s objects may appear to be modern and functional, but all they are made to contain is the beauty of their own design. Hussain’s paintings emerge through a contemporary creative prism and delicately reveal a fresh perception of this sublime and complex form.

Zarah Hussain http://www.zarahhussain.co.uk/

Halima Cassell http://www.halimacassell.com/index.php

Mid Pennine Gallery http://www.midpenninearts.org.uk/galleryhome.htm

Was it all a dream??

I have now been back in the UK for over a month and it is rather disturbing that the past 2 years in the UAE seem to have left no trace whatsoever. I have only thought about it twice - once when a plane flew low enough over my garden to read 'Emirates' on its undercarriage and once when I saw the UAE listed in a money transfer office full of Pakistanis in my local high street. If it wasn't for the evidence of this blog I would find it hard to believe that the last two years had actually happened!

Catching up with friends who have had major changes in their lives is a stark reminder that I have been elsewhere. Similarly the fact that we are loving the rain (a pleasure we can't share with anyone else in this country) also points to a semi-detached status. However, any sense of where we have been for all that time is almost completely absent. It's like having a mild form of amnesia.

Perhaps when I start working properly again and especially if I start reviewing some arty stuff that has a UAE connection, my memory may return..... or maybe I just need to find a taxi ....

Home and Dry

It is good to be back and getting wall to wall TV coverage of Glastonbury and Wimbledon was a bonus. The UK weather has been disappointingly glorious since our return but there have been a few showers and storms and all sorts of clouds. It's that constant variation in the sky and the atmosphere that I missed most in the UAE so I am really enjoying it. Our house is fine and just in need of a bit of paint and TLC but the garden was so overgrown it was like a small field. I actually felt a bit guilty getting out there with the shears and wantonly destroying several reclaimed insect habitats but there can be no territorial compromise with flying ants. The long running soap opera that is my family continues and I almost couldn't take the omnibus edition that greeted me on arrival. However, I live far enough away not to have to deal with it on a daily basis so equanimity can be retained!

What is best, however, is the 5th E17 Art Trail. In the first one in 2005 there were about 40 artists but this year there are an amazing 180 different individuals, groups or projects proving that cultural and arts development has not only been happening in the UAE. The last Art Trail I did in 2006 was an installation in a local museum garden and they have agreed to let do a completely different installation in their garden again. This alone would have been a neat transition back to my pre-UAE life but it gets better..... the E17 Art Trail this year has manged to get 3 Arts Council of England Commissions - 2 for new art work and one for an art blog which covers and records the work in this year's Trail. Guess who got the commission for the blog?? OH YES :)

I was worried that it would be difficult to plug my UAE experience back into the UK but within a few weeks of being back I am in a very nice place. As well as being happy with both the conceptual and material aspects of my planned installation, I am also able to get completely immersed in the locality again by using the blogging and writing skills I would not have had without the UAE experience.

It also means I win a bet with spouse about who would be the first to earn some money back in the UK....