National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, April 29, 2010

Left to right: John Farrell, Kojo Darku, Ugo Eme, Linda Thompson and artist Carol Sorhaindo

Visitors to the International Slavery Museum will have noticed a colourful addition to the Legacy section of the museum. Our Cultural Apprentice, Finola Kelly tells us a bit more about it:

The group made several visits to the International Slavery Museum over a number of weeks. Inspired by their trips the participants worked with artist, Carol Sorhaindo and staff from Mary Seacole House and the museum to bring their ideas to life. They selected objects or artifacts, which inspired them as a stimulus for their artwork.

The final piece, called Travellers Palm, was created using mainly recycled and natural materials. It was important to the group that the piece be bright, uplifting and different, especially as it was being displayed in the Legacy section of the museum.

The resulting artwork was unveiled last week at a packed launch event and is well worth a look!

The project was funded by Liverpool PCT for the 2010 Year of Health and Wellbeing.  The aim of the project was to see how engaging with museums and galleries can enhance the state of a person’s mental health.

Emma putting the final touches to The Dancer. She is adding some gold leaf to the Liverpool skyline which runs across the front of the work.

I once harbored great dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. My mum took me to local classes as a child and over 20 years on I can still remember the excitement of pulling on my little ballet slippers, packing my special ballet bag and endless recitals of "good toes, naughty toes".

Sadly my career was short-lived. My mum had always been uneasy about the rather dour teacher who would not allow parents in the room during the class and put a piece of paper in the window to prevent curious parents from looking in. Being tiny I thought it was perfectly normal for ballet teachers to crack the floor with a cane and bellow at small children. I realised how wrong I was when I happened to mention some of her teaching methods to my mum and as a consequence never set foot in the place again.

Keen to find me another hobby mum encouraged me to join Kirkby Jiu Jitsu Academy. Maybe she felt after my brush with the megalomaniac dance teacher I could do with learning some skills in self-defence? Jiu Jitsu was great and I stuck with it till black belt but seeing Emma Rodger's sculpture The Dancer at the Walker Art Gallery this week has made me wonder what might have been.

Captured mid-performance the sculpture strikes a dramatic pose. With arms reaching to the sky, she balances on one foot, with the other kicking backwards in a way that seems impossible to mere mortals. She is simply stunning and at around 8ft tall a real feat of engineering too.

The accompanying display, Emma Rodgers: From Sketch to Sculpture, reveals the journey from the artist's imagination to reality. It includes preparatory sketches and photographs taken by Rodgers as visual aids. There is also a photograph of the maquette, which Rodgers employed to test her ideas out in 3D and replicas of a foot of the sculpture at various stages in the casting process, revealing the method known as the"lost wax process".

There is a special launch for visitors to the gallery this Saturday. Emma will be there and there will be actvities for all the family. I’ll be taking my little girl along to see what she makes of The Dancer and if she has any interest in fulfilling her mum’s missed opportunity!

Events on Saturday 1 May:

Centre Stage 11.30am - 1.30pm
Create and decorate your own stage for Emma's sculpture The Dancer in this fun family workshop.
Drop in session- no ticket required
Suitable for 5yrs +
 
Emma Rodgers in Conversation 12-12:30pm
Curator Laura MacCulloch finds out more about Emma's inspiration, motivation, working process and future plans through an informal conversation with the artist.
Drop in session- no ticket required
Suitable for all

For more information on Emma’s work check out the video in The Rise of Women Artist exhibition pages. Emma’s work is included in the exhibition, on at the Walker Art Gallery until 1 August.

Continuing our celebration of World Museum's 150th anniversary, today we are looking back to 2005 when we had some exciting new developments completed at the museum...

Lloyd Grossman and visitors at the museum re-opening.

On this day in 2005, the new entrance, atrium, displays, cafés and shop opened at the World Museum and here is one review that was from Liverpool’s Nerve magazine:

'The refurbished £35 million museum now promises a view of the world 'from the oceans to the stars'. Access has been much improved; the entrance is now at ground level instead of up dozens of steps. This leads into the stunning new glass atrium where the old museum connects to the extension in the former John Moores University building, where most of the new galleries are located. The renovation has also seen the reopening of galleries that had been closed since the museum was bombed in World War II. The old mish-mash of exhibits has been replaced by clearly defined new sections: 'Space and Time', 'Natural World', 'Human World', and 'Earth'.

Additions to the museum include a new bug house and aquarium with marine and insect life better displayed than before while the Weston Discovery and the Clore Natural History centres offer the chance to get 'hands on' with exhibits from the human and natural world respectively - always good for getting kids interested. Exhibits are further brought to life by the Treasure House Theatre, which puts on live performances in relation to the exhibits. Meanwhile the new World Cultures gallery contains a selection of the antiquities brought to Liverpool by its international traders. This does a good job of explaining not only the differing cultures of the world but also how the city developed due to its international connections.

Large parts of the museum - such as the ancient civilisation and rainforest sections - have hardly changed at all in twenty years; they are still mainly objects in glass cases with little cards. However, the museum hopes to continue re-development as more money becomes available.

This is a much more user-friendly Liverpool Museum, with things explained in a way that's interesting, fun and easy to understand without being dumbed down.'

Have you been catching the latest tweets?

Our Public Lecture Series on Thursday afternoons at World Museum got off to a flying start last week. It continues today, with two great topics: at 2pm - The Recovery of a Fragment of an Egyptian Pyramid; and 2.30pm - Raywatch: Angling for Data. The talks will take place in the Treasure House Theatre and admission is free. See you later!

Older buildings have often outlived most of the people who set inside them, but their meaning and significance is usually defined by the way they are used by those same people. This week's highlight from our Liverpool's Chinatown through the lens Flickr competition, by Flickr user diaryof70steen, is an attractive composition which, though it consists of two buildings and nothing else, says much about different cultures and communities over time.

old and light © diaryof70steen

Visually the image creates a striking parallel between the vibrancy of the Chinese arch, its curved roofs and intricate patterns, and the stoic grandeur of the Black-E centre, with its magnificent dome and Corinthian columns. With a whited-out sky the many shapes and patterns of the buildings stand out crisply in an almost abstract way.

More than the architecture however, the photo tells of a long history of different Liverpudlian communities. The Black-E - taking its name from its smoke-stained stonework that was cleaned in the 1980s - combines a contemporary arts centre with a community centre (the UK's first community arts project), and is based in the former Great George Street Chapel, which closed in 1967. This in turn had been the centre for a programme of artistic, educational and social welfare activities as well as worship, and was itself the second Chapel on the site, opening in 1841 after the 1811 original was destroyed by fire. It seems appropriate that a building so long the hub of many community activities is captured here next to a great symbol of Liverpool's long-established Chinese community, itself also dating from the 19th century. See the photo in a large size.

To celebrate our photography exhibition China: Through the Lens of John Thomson 1868-72 at the Merseyside Maritime Museum we want you to submit your photos of Liverpool's Chinatown to our Flickr pool - our favourite photo submitted by 24 May will win a banquet for two at Yuet Ben, with two runners-up winning exhibition catalogues. Find out more on the competition page.

Emma Rodgers has now put the finishing touches to 'The Dancer' and her display of the sculpture opens today in the Walker Art Gallery.

The sculpture was previously at the Castle Fine Arts Foundry in North Wales but has now taken centre stage in the ‘Emma Rodgers: From Sketch to Sculpture’ display.

The photograph above shows Rodgers patinating the bronze sculpture to create the desired finish. This is achieved by placing powdered chemicals on to the surface before heating them. This results in a chemical reaction which colours the surface of the sculpture. Different chemicals create different colours and it takes a lot of experience to know which chemicals to use to achieve the required colour.

To find out more about how 'The Dancer' was made visit ‘Emma Rodgers: From Sketch to Sculpture’ at the Walker, which shows how this sculpture evolved from an idea in to reality.

You can also see videos of Emma at work in her studio, describing her work in general and talking about her life as an artist, on our 'The Rise of Women Artists' video page.

Artists Ged Quinn, Alison Watt and Gary Hume during stage 1

At last! Our first look behind the scenes of the John Moores 2010 is now online.

Watch the video here...

You will see judges Gary Hume, Ged Quinn and Alison Watt talking about the competition so far and footage from inside the judging room itself, with snatches of their discussions!

Fellow judges Goshka Macuga and Sir Norman Rosenthal were absent due to the ban on flights at the time because of the volcanic ash problems. Their choices were included as Reyahn King, Head of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool, read out their preferences during the judging process.

We also now have a John Moores 2010 Flickr set which we will be adding to over the course of the competition and exhibition.

Look out for the next behind the scenes video, which will be looking at Stage 2 of the judging, taking place in Liverpool in June.

This is where it will get really exciting, as the judges get to see the paintings 'in the flesh' to make their final choices and decide on the winner. To stay up to date, follow JM2010 on Twitter or sign up for our JM2010 blog news feed here.

A merchant ship exploding after being torpedoed by a U-boat. Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

Those I knew returned more or less safely to resume their peacetime lives but all were left scarred to a greater or lesser degree.

The Merchant Navy suffered heavy losses in the Second World War as ships struggled against German aircraft, mines and U-boat submarines to successfully bring vital supplies to besieged Britain.

It is likely that at least one quarter of the men who were in the British Merchant Navy at the outbreak of war in 1939 did not survive until the end in 1945 – some 30,000 dead. Most of their bodies were never recovered.

This was a higher death rate than that suffered by any of the British armed services. More than 6.000 Royal Navy sailors on Western Approaches Command, and perhaps some 4,000 others, died in the Battle of the Atlantic. More than 6,000 men of the RAF Coastal Command also died.

U-boat crews suffered terrible losses but managed to retain their morale and discipline until the end of hostilities. Every crew member knew he would die a horrible death if his submarine was destroyed under water.

In Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Battle of the Atlantic gallery there is a copy of the church service book used on smaller Royal Navy ships about 1943

A postcard and guide feature the German naval memorial at Laboe, near Kiel. A Type VII U-boat standing before the memorial is the U 995 built by Blohm und Voss, Hamburg, in 1943. U 995 sank six ships before surrendering to the British at the end of the war.

An archive newspaper report shows the unveiling of the memorial at Liverpool’s Pier Head to the 1,390 Merchant Navy officers and men who died while serving under Royal Navy orders during the Second World War.

Another report covers the unveiling of the memorial in Trinity Square, Tower Hill, London, to the 24,000 merchant seamen and men of the fishing fleet who lost their lives but have “no graves but the sea”.

A merchant ship is seen exploding after being torpedoed by a U-boat (pictured). During the six years of war, U-boats sank nearly 14.7 million tons of allied shipping.  Britain lost 11.7 million tons, which is 54% of the total Merchant Navy fleet at the outbreak of the war.

Following many years of campaigning, Merchant Navy Day became an official day of remembrance on 3 September 2000.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1 p&p UK).
 

‘RMS Oropesa’ by Arthur Burgess during conservation treatment

Our eyes and brains work together to make sense of things and often a slightly yellow varnish doesn’t make much difference to how we perceive the relationships between colours so we can still tell which areas are white, blue or green. But when a varnish becomes very discoloured our brains can’t remove enough yellow to compensate for the discolouration. Although we know that sky is probably a shade of blue, it becomes difficult to tell whether it ought to be bright or stormy.

As I carefully removed the varnish the true colours were revealed and the dark, orange painting gave way to a light, blue-grey toned scene. Even as a conservator and knowing how much difference removing an old varnish can make, the dramatic transformation of this painting was a bit of a surprise!"

Have we ever had a 'frog blog' story on our blog before? I don't think we have! To continue our series of blogs celebrating the World Museum's 150th anniversary, we've got some news from our resident frog fanatic and Aquarist, Phil Lewis. Read on to find out what he's currently working on at the museum...

Save the Frogs is an international team of scientists, educators, policymakers and naturalists dedicated to protecting the worlds amphibian species: the frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and ceacilians.  It is the first and only public charity dedicated exclusively to amphibian conservation.

Phil with one of his froggy friends in Honduras.

Worldwide frogs and other amphibians have been declining at an alarming rate with nearly one third of amphibian species threatened with extinction.  This means that out of the 6,485 species of amphibian on our planet up to 2000 of them may go extinct before the end of the 21st century.

Save The Frogs Day (30 April 2010) is now an internationally recognised day aimed at raising awareness about the global amphibian extinction crisis.  I think it's great that events and activities are being held around the globe to highlight this problem and make it common knowledge as soon as possible! 

To join in, I will be organising and coordinating lots of Save The Frogs events at World Museum from Friday 30 April – Monday 3 May. Activities will include three talks featuring live tropical frogs and a chance to take part in a quiz, with prizes to win, at the end.  There will be an amphibian trail around the museum with more prizes to win, along with badge making, face painting, colouring and drawing activities. You can also enter an art contest with the best frog picture winning a prize.  All prizes were purchased from savethefrogs.com where the proceeds will go towards amphibian conservation projects.

My aim is to give people a better understanding of why it so important to conserve the worlds amphibians both for humans and for the planet's eco-systems.