Weekender: New sculptures unveiled at Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park
Six new sculptures by conceptual artist Dr Subodh Kerkar have been installed at Yorkshire’s Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park.
The garden and open-air gallery features more than 70 sculptures over 45 acres, comprising an arboretum and three lakes. The park is also home to the North’s largest collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias with 20,000 plants.
Dr Kerkar founded the largest contemporary art space in India, the Museum of Goa. His work is showcased all over the world. Ghandi’s principle of ahimsa (doing no harm) is a theme that runs through his work.
Visitors will walk through a doorway to experience Logs of Dialogues, a sculpture that consist of 18 logs painted with eyes and open mouths. An ode to dialogue, it is a response to the rise of terrorism.
Dr Kerkar said: “Terrorism is a product of a lack of communication, the world needs dialogue more than ever before.”
Combining natural materials from Yorkshire with 10,000 shells shipped from his Goa homeland to chronicle Yorkshire’s links with the sea, The Ocean Comes to Yorkshire features logs covered with cowrie and tower shells.
Dr Kerkar said: “When the Vikings came to Yorkshire they used the ocean as a highway. There are more than 2,000 place names in Yorkshire originating from that Viking culture. Cowrie shells were used as currency, because they didn’t disintegrate and porcelain, named from the cowrie shell, was much prized in the UK.”
More than 3,000 pine cones were collected in the autumn from the gardens and stored for the installation The Pineapple Disc – a sculpture that fuses East and West. A Book Tree features logs carved with books encased in resin symbolising the process from tree to book, while the Cotton Tree alludes to Yorkshire’s industrial heritage.
Peter Roberts, who founded the garden with his wife Caroline, commissioned the Indian artist.
Roberts said: “The sculptures build on the Himalayan theme as East meets West, with a reimagining of Yorkshire’s history. Subodh’s installations inspire peace and reflection as visitors interact with nature. We are very excited about the new work.”
The Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park opens for 2019 between April 16 and July 14, and October 5 to November 3.
