Art Sunday; Public Art
This
is something that has been in my mind to do for a while. It’s easy to
forget that ‘Art’ is more than what we find in galleries and
books;………..sometimes its there in front of us, it’s all around us, in
the street, seen from the bus, sitting un-noticed outside our office,
easy to miss, easy to forget, and easy to not recognise as ‘art’. Dundee
has quite a bit of ‘Public Art’ and I think there are lots of people
who walk past this every day and don’t know they are surrounded by
‘Art’.
So here is a little of what sits in the streets of Dundee.
The
first 9 pictures are the ‘Overgate Bronzes’, these are bronze relief
sculptures set high in the outside walls of the Overgate shopping
centre.
Each
bronze was commissioned when the Overgate shopping centre was built and
intended to represent one of the older trades or professions of Dundee.
I
can’t actually remember which is which but I know some of them are
taken from the shapes of bobbins and looms of the old mills and others
represent parts of the fishing or boat building industries.
The next is the large Green Dragon who sits in the High Street area of the town, he is very popular with the tourists.
The
strange ball and zig-zag stone sculptures are found on the east side of
the town. They greet you as the bus dips down toward the Tay, one of
your first views of the town as you enter from the East side. I think
these are older than the others and I have no idea when they were put
there.
The
big Bronze statues of Desperate Dan, the dog Gnasher and their fellow
comic strip character Minnie the Minx are all grouped together in the
high street.
They
are here because the famous childrens comics, the Beano and the Dandy,
from where these characters came, started life in Dundee and was printed
right here in the centre of the town. 
Then we have the monkey sitting on top of the information board;
and a couple of the old city gateways re-created in miniature with a little information plaque underneath. 
There
is the inevitable statue of Burns, sitting appropriately out side the
McManus galleries, a gift to the city from a Victorian Philanthropist,
and presently under renovation.
The
significance of the penguins is the connection between the city and
Scott of the Antarctic. His ship, Discovery, was built here, he sailed
from here and the ship is now permanently anchored here and open to the
public.
Last but not least………………the squirrel, very cute but I have no idea why she is here !!
this is interesting, another blog page devoted to Dundee Public Art
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acousticeagle wrote on Jun 14, '09
I
do like public art and particularly murals and statues. I am
particularly fond of statues from days of yore. There is much public art
work in the city of Melbourne (Australia) to admire, some old, some
contemporary.
The small animals here and the penguins are sweetly fanciful. There's things to find if one looks in city areas, even interesting architectural features. |
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Great idea and love the collection.
I was wondering if you do Art Sunday solo or in Lina's place. She asked me to take it over and run with it if she was gone for awhile, but I'm giving my letter more time before I assume the role officially. I'm glad you have kept it going on your page, do you know anything about Art Sunday as it pertains to others and her? Just wondering so if/when I do start it I can know where it's at right now. I hope I hear something and I will make sure to let you know. I was meaning to post the letter I wrote her as a blog, but life has not stopped offline for me to get enough air let alone blog. It would be nice if we could work together to give it life again. My chronic illness doesn't always allow me to blog on specific days so there will be Sundays I'd need a host like Lina did, I actually feel my blog is always art in someway, photography, poetry, even life, but the day of Art Sunday has long meant a lot to me reaching back to three years ago on 360. I absolutely love that you added graffiti to your blog, so very true and so often overlooked. :) ~Megs |
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forgetmenot525 wrote on Jun 14, '09
I
have just realised none of these pictures enlarge if you click on
them...............another little 'glitch' i suppose, my pictures ALWAYS
enlarged before. This is a nasty gremlin like 'glitch' that I DON'T
like. i like to be able to SEE my pictures..............
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brendainmad wrote on Jun 14, '09
Very
interesting. I really like street art and the Babylon DunD graffiti is
quite impressive. Graffiti like this is like having an outdoor art
gallery. What I don't like, and it's something that I see too often, is
somebody's name or initials or whatever defacing a building. I see
'Marina' all over the place here. Who the heck is that?
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starfishred wrote on Jun 14, '09
the abstract are not my thing but the rest are wonderful thanks for sharing
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