A Cultural Weekend in the West Riding of Yorkshire – Victoria Tower, Henry Moore Institute and Nostell Priory

Ah, the bank holiday weekend.  A time to get out of London and piece together an agenda of interesting activities, hopefully interspersed with at least one pub lunch.  At the start of May I spend a weekend in the West Riding of Yorkshire, including a day in Leeds, and enjoyed activities including a very windy walk in the countryside around the Victoria Tower on Castle Hill, an exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute, and Nostell Priory, a stately home nearby.  I didn’t have very deep thoughts about any of this because I was mostly just having a nice weekend (no musing about orientalism here), so what follows are mostly pictures!

Victoria Tower, Castle Hill

Oh my goodness, it was windy here.  And cold.  My ears ached for a good long while after leaving.  I tried to appreciate the history of the place, and the views, but more or less failed.  My understanding is that there was an ancient settlement here (of masochists?), and that the Victorians then built a folly on the top, named it Victoria Tower, and admired it from miles around.  We could have climbed up it, but weren’t that silly.  Interpretation was minimal (a couple of signs here and there) so this was mostly natural heritage and industrial landscape rather than a historical site proper.

Votives, Aleksandra Domanović: Henry Moore Institute

This exhibition is interesting: I wouldn’t rush to see it, but if you’re in Leeds and at a loose end it’s fairly good.  This is a commission, part of the Institute’s efforts to support “new thinking in the field of sculpture studies”.  The sculptural works are based on the Greek korai form, but what I found a lot more interesting was a video which explored the post-Yugoslavian Balkan states, and their adoption of Western cultural heroes (eg. statues of Rocky, Bob Marley, and one that I’ve personally seen of Bill Clinton in Pristina).  There was a fascinating concept of ‘turbo-folk’, the modernisation of something local into something hyper-real in tandem with the relaxation of controls.  Ok, maybe I did do some thinking while I was there.

 Nostell Priory

This is a nice country house, with standard collections of art and furniture, friendly visitor hosts, and a focus at the moment on a John Harrison clock they own (he of longitude fame).  I was interested in the way that they are encouraging visitor engagement in the conservation debate: the clock is 300 this year and is getting to the point where some parts will need to be replaced in order to keep it in working order, so Nostell Priory is encouraging visitors to leave their thoughts on how this should be approached: is its value predominantly as a historic object or a working clock?  Temporary clock installations by artist Luke Jerram continue the theme throughout the house.

Votives at the Henry Moore Institute until 11 June, free

Harrison’s Garden at Nostell Priory until 9 July