Stirling and Falkirk

I am now living in Australia and recently made an epic journey to Scotland. My friend and I completed the air route in just under 24 hours and then continued on bus, train and car to our final destination near Dundee.

Clockwise from top left:
Sydney Kingsford Smith, Singapore Changi, London Heathrow, Edinburgh Airport

While staying near Dundee, we made a day trip to Stirling and Falkirk.

Stirling

"He who holds Stirling holds Scotland." Stirling lies in the centre of Scotland and was an important battle ground for when William Wallace and Robert the Bruce fought for Scotland's independence from English rule. (Source: http://www.visitstirling.org)

Stained glass image of William Wallace
He must have been a huge man -
his sword is 1.67m long (taller than me)

William Wallace is considered one of the greatest hero of Scotland. He was born to a Scots landowner and not a lot was known about him until when he led revolts after revolts against the English. The most famous of all was Battle of Stirling. From his vantage point, Wallace had watched King Edward I's army arrive and defeated them at the Sitrling Bridge.

(Source: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scotlandshistory) 

Wallace sent letters to Europe to proclaim Scotland's independence and further took war to the North of England. He was eventually captured and tortured to a terrible death. (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/william_wallace/) 

The National Wallace Monument was later erected in Abbey Craig, Stirling in 1869 to commemorate the life of William Wallace.  The Battle of Stirling later inspired the film "The Braveheart". Standing on top of The National Wallace Monument, it was not hard to imagine how the English troop attempted to charge across the river and up the hill and how the Scotsmen roared and retaliated.

View of Stirling from hilltop

Wallace Monument

Sculpture of William Wallace
leading his man

Falkirk

Falkirk is about half an hour's drive from Stirling. Falkirk lies in the junction of Forth & Clyde Canal (which links 56 kilometers to the west to Glasgow) and Union Canal (which links 51 kilometres to the east to Edinburgh) and was an important centre during the Industrial Revolution. 

During the Industrial Age, the canals in the Great Britain were main means of transporting raw materials such as coal, iron-ore and agricultural produce from town to town. The Union Canal, for example, was primarily used to transport coal from the coal centre in Edinburgh. The canals eventually lost the competition to the railway system in 1930s and stopped operating commercially. 

The most unique thing about the canals in Falkirk is that Forth & Clyde Canal lies 35 metres below the Union Canal. In the olden days, the 2 canals was joined by a flight of 11 locks that stepped down across a distance of 1.5km but these were dismantled in 1933. It is fascinating how a boat can move from different heights through locks from canal to canal.

Pound lock

The Millennium Link project saw to the biggest canal restoration project in Britain and in 2001, the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals were re-opened, with the 35 metres tall Falkirk Wheels incorporated.  (Source: http://www.scottishcanals.co.uk) The Falkirk Wheel, the world's first and only rotating boat lift, eliminates the need for boats to move in and out of 11 locks.  We saw a boat come into a caisson, waited for water to fill and be lifted to the next elevation, sailed away and then ascended another 35 metres on the Falkirk Wheel to the next level of canal and sailed through a tunnel.

Boat waits in caisson for water to fill and lift boat up. Gate opens and boat sails merrily away.

Boat travel up via Falkirk Wheel and to the next canal

Not far from the Falkirk Wheel are The Kelpies. The Kelpies are 30 metres tall stainless steel equine sculptures by Andy Scott in the Helix Park. They are inspired by the mythical shape shifting water horse that lives in lochs and pools in Scotland. Andy Scott used Clydesdale Carnera horses as models (Source: www.thekelpies.co.uk) and both horses and stainless steel were chosen to reflect the industrial background of the location while the kelpie theme echoes the canals the area. I absolutely love The Kelpies.

The Kelpies

Sculpture walks

Recently, 3 outdoor sculpture exhibitions took place in Sydney and in the Hunter Valley and they could not be set in more different backdrops - in a cemetery, by the sea and in vineyards. 

The gratuitous exhibitions provided me invaluable opportunities to explore new areas and familiar grounds and in conjunction, look at sculptures in the open. It was interesting to see not only the artworks, but also how people responded to them. Much as I have learnt to appreciate arts as they are, sometimes I still could not help but roll my eyes and think, as Iain put it, "Huh? I could have done that myself.". All 3 exhibitions gave out awards to artists - one would be judged by a professional panel and the other, as voted by visitors. Not surprisingly, what the professionals thought were the best may not turn out as most loved by the masses. What do you think of the judges' and people's choices?

HIDDEN 2013

At 285 hectares, Rookwood Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the Southern Hemisphere, catering to 90 denominations. The land was originally used by free settlers in the New South Wales colony in 1790s until when it became a private property of Edward Cohen (a mayor of Melbourne) and later offered to the government as a cemetery ground in 1861 when the burial site at the current Sydney Town Hall ran of space. (Source: www.rookwoodcemetery.com.au)

Since 2009, Rookwood General Cemetery Trust has used various sites in the cemetery and invited artists to put together installations that explore the notion of mortality and its related themes such as life, love, death, loss and memory. The Trust hopes to "support the art community, whilst encouraging members of the public to re-familiarise themselves with Rookwood and its significance in our heritage and our future". (Source: www.rookwoodcemetery.com.au) The event is titled HIDDEN and this year, it was curated by Cassandra Hard Lawrie.

This is the first time I have visited Rookwood. While driving, I missed a HIDDEN banner near a roundabout (pardon the pun - but the HIDDEN banner was not hidden), got lost and went wondering about amongst the Jewish tombs and Italian vaults. 

I finally found my way to the sculpture walk held near the All Souls Chapel. 40 sculptures were nestled in an area that encompassed old American War Graves and other older areas of the Anglican cemetery site. 

Unlike most of the outdoor sculpture exhibitions I have been, HIDDEN 2013 had a number of small sculptures.

Clytie by Sandy Bliim

In Loving Memory by Mark Aylward and Helen Stronach

Shoot by Ad Long

Some of the installations were interactive. In Guardian Angels, for example, Judith Kirby wanted to "explore the idea of memoriam and our yearning to mark and record the passing of people who touch our lives". Small sculptures of angels were placed around old American war stones of Civil War veterans, facing various directions. Visitors were invited to take one of the angel sculptures, place them in another spot on the grounds and post a picture on a facebook page dedicated for this. I think Kirby was most impressed by some visitors who turned all the angels to face the rising sun.

Foreground: Guardian Angels by Judith Kirby
Background: Gate by Neil Laredo

This year's Rookwood Necropolis Sculpture Award went to Stevie Fieldsend for his response to the time spent with his father and his sudden death. Made of wood, glass and metal, he explored "how grief manifests itself and resides in the body".

Solve et Coagula by Stevie Fieldsend
Winner of the Rockwood Necropolis Sculpture Award 2013

Clean Washing by Jane Burton Taylor

My favourite installation was Clean Washing by Jane Burton Taylor.

Taylor sourced handkerchiefs, hand printed images of cosmic events on them and hung them on a Hills Hoist. She wanted to remind people of "the everyday reality of death, it happens in our own backyard and the cleansing power of the grieving process".

I sat under the Hills Hoist with mixed emotions as it turned round and round in the wind. Was it the wind that blew the tears away or was it the sun that made them evaporate?

Rainbow lorikeet

While at Rookwood, I made a visit to the war graves, where those who died as the result of service of armed forces and proper commemoration could not be given were honoured in the Garden of Remembrance. 400,000 and 1 million had served in the Australian Armed Forces during World Wars I and II respectively. 62,000 of them died in the first world war and 40,500 in the second.

Garden of Remembrance

I thought I was alone in the Garden but accidentally spotted a kookaburra as I looked up to the sky. It was a very special moment.

Laughing Kookaburra

Sculpture by the Sea 2013

I have always loved the Eastern Suburbs for its proximity to the sea and the Hawkesbury sandstone cliffs from the Triassic period some 20 million years ago. 

The Sculpture by the Sea was founded by David Handley in 1997 to provide a free and accessible visual arts events to the public. Spanning between the beautiful landscape between Tamara Beach and Bondi Beach, it has since become an annual event and also expanded to sister exhibitions in Cottesloe, Perth and Aarhus, Denmark. (Source: www.sculpturebythesea.com)

L: Crowd on a sunny day R: It's for the kids too

Sculptures and sunbathers at Tamara Beach

The sculpture walk has so successfully brought art to people of all generations that it is getting more popular and crowded every year. This year, to avoid the crowd and to catch the sunrise, I went to the beach at 5am. Unfortunately for me, a storm was developing and with low clouds, I was unable to capture the typical "sun pops out from below the horizon" moment. However, the blessing in disguise was - the imminent bad weather made the pictures look more dramatic, even when I was using my simple point-and-shoot camera.

There were about 100 sculptures. Just like previous years, many of the artists made use of the existing elements as part of their installations.

shared weight by Elyssa Skyes-Smith 

the great bondi sharehouse by Magarita Sampson

coral by Coral Collective

(coral looked more like the flowers that bloomed in the bushes on the cliffs to me.)

Not a sculpture

There were some similar but contrasting ideas.

L: there's many a slip by Ken Unsworth R: diminish and ascend by David McCracken

girl pointing by Matt Calvert

the museum by Paul Selwood

washed up by Tunni Kraus
mourned the asylum seekers
who never made it to the Australian shores  

I especially loved the dog from fetch in the bottom right of the picture below, with its legs in the sand.

fetch by The Winged Collective

L: ephemeral aura by Thomas Muray and Nicole Larkin R: moment of clarity by David Hashimoto

bubble no:5 by Qian Sihua

The Sculpture Prize was awarded to Stephen King for his wooden sculpture fallout.

L: returning to the sea by Peter Lundberg R: fallout by Stephen King

The most popular sculpture accolade went to horizon by Lucy Humphrey. Set on top of a cliff, a 2-tonne, 1.5-metre diameter, hollow acrylic sphere held 1800 litres of tap water and turned the world upside down. It reminded me of the snow globes Bing Seng gave us each time he came back from his overseas trips.

horizon by Lucy Humphrey

Sculpture in the Vineyards 2013

Sculpture in the Vineyards takes place along the Wollombi Valley Wine Trail. The word "Wollombi" was derived from the Aboriginal meaning “a meeting of waters, a meeting place, a meeting of people” (Source: Wollombi community notice board) and the area used to be the ceremonial meeting place for local Aboriginal tribes. (Source: http://www.visitwollombi.com.au) The exhibition seeks to showcase sculptures "of distinguished practitioners as well as experimental and emerging artists" and boutique wines. It also hopes to introduce the public to historically significant Aboriginal engravings and the scenic Great North Road which was built by convicts between 1826 and 1836. (Source: www.sculptureinthevineyards.com.au) This year, 100 large-scaled sculptures were featured across 4 vineyards. 

The 130km drive took me 2 hours and it was tiring, scary and lonely.

Figure in Landscape by Time Kyle

Wrought Iron Rocking Horse by Tobias Bennett

Spring Flowers by Ludwig Micek

Join me for a cup of tea by Students of Hurlstone Agriculture HIgh School, Margo Gabsi and Jo Ross
(The teacup says "It would be nice if something makes sense for a change")

Not a sculpture

Endangered Species by Claude Jones

L: Treedon R: To be free , both by Russell Travertine

A Poem for You by Anne Gaulton

Portal by Bronwyn Berman

For a dear friend who suggested 'Picture of the day' - wish we were sitting under the tree:

Sydney : International Fleet Review 2013

On 25 July 1913, HMAS Australia and HMAS Sydney set sail from England and the Royal Australian Navy entered the Sydney Harbour for the first time on 4 October 1913. Since then, fleet reviews take place for a number of reasons such as to demonstrate the strength of the Navy's fleet to potential enemies and to mark the coronation and significant jubilees of the reigning monarch. This year, more than 50 warships and tall ships from 20 countries came together to the mark the centenary. (Source: http://www.navy.gov.au/ifr/)

The 2013 International Fleet Review coincided with the Labour Day long weekend and was filled with festivities, with Navy air displays, naval band performances, a special appearance by Prince Harry, vessels open days and fireworks and light shows. Newscasters were at loss of adjectives and the word "spectacular" came up in every other sentence. (Even the crowd pining and screaming for Harry was called "spectacular". @@. Sigh.) Tickets to the warships and tall ships open days were sold out. The air displays and fireworks were definitely highlights for me.

Of tall ship, warships, cruise ships and a Hornet

This tall ship has many followers, kayakers included

Look, who's here?

My bumble bees

The poor birds must be bewildered why their space in the sky has been invaded by so many noisy bodies.

Can you tell the bird from the plane?

More than 1 million staked out at various vantage points around the Sydney Harbour to view a 30-minute fireworks and pyrotechnics extravaganza, where fireworks and lights were launched from warships in the harbour for the first time.

Video: Fireworks and light show finale