Detail of 'Alabaster Heads, 2008-10', Underground Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK

            I could have spent hours studying these serene, contemplative faces.

I'm very accustomed to seeing (and making!) digitally-distorted images, so encountering huge, tactile and very solid examples was disconcerting.
Yet their appearence also challenges that solidity (and the heads are definitely not tactile – touching the soft, easily discoloured alabaster was strictly forbidden).  The material's almost organic translucence, softly lit from above, seemed improbable, as if the real reason we weren't allowed to touch was that they were secretly holograms.

None of the heads is completely 'finished': their bases and backs exhibit the rough, chisel-marked stone of the early stages of shaping, with only the fronts and sides polished to perfection, whilst some have barely been freed from the original quarry-cut alabaster blocks; peaceful faces emerging from otherwise rough columns.

[And no, the photo isn't distorted – the heads really are elongated.]

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Haigh (show map)

Taken on: September 10, 2011

Tags:

alabaster heads

jaume plensa

yorkshire sculpture park

west bretton

wakefield

west

yorkshire

jaume

plensa

bretton hall

ysp

gallery

bretton

country park

alabaster

stone

head

carve

block

face

moai « less

Sets appears in: • Jaume Plensa • Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Groups appears in: • Sculpture • Statues and Sculptures. more » • Public Sculpture (UK) • Yorkshire Sculpture Park - PLEASE GIVE DETAILS !!!!!!!!!! • Head Start in Art • Fans of Yorkshire Sculpture Park • YSPsculpture • Jaume Plensa sculptures « less

Camera: Canon EOS 450D, f/1.8, 1/25 sec, 50mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 450D
Aperture:	f/1.8
Exposure Time:	0.04 sec (1/25)
Focal Length:	50mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Shutter speed priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows
Show full info

Stats: 776 views / 1 comment

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder