Autumn

November 26th, 2007

 When all the leaves are troublesome gold - a line from a poem written by my son when he was a scarily precocious 3 year old.  It always springs to mind (or should that be ‘autumns’ to mind?) at this time of year.

It’s nice to kick back and blog for a bit now the days are drawing in - there is definately a chill in the air. Here at the Art Gallery we have been passing around a cold of the worst kind, such that we may have to start painting crosses on the office doors. Thankfully I was able to escape from the heady atmosphere of Vicks Vapourub last week when I attended the engage conference in Bradford.  It was particularly welcome as it included a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park on a day bright with sunshine.  The Andy Goldworthy installations are a must see.  You have not seen a wood pile until you have seen one of Mr. Goldsworthy’s. 

As a student I wrote a thesis on the romanticisim of nature in industrial societies and how this is reflected in the Green Man myth.  I wrote to several artists, asking for their feelings towards the Green Man - including Andy Goldsworthy - he was very generous in his reply, too busy to write to me, he recorded his answer on an audio tape, which he requested I return to him, as on the B-side were noises made by his baby son. His wife had recorded it for him whilst he was on a residency in Japan.  It is something of a regret that I didn’t have the where-with-all to make a copy of the tape before sending it back - baby noises and all. I still have the transcript (of Andy’s comments - not his son’s) though, painstakingly tapped out on my Remington portable - now I really am showing my age!

by Gaby
Posted in York Art Gallery, York Museums Trust

That’s really interesting. Can you explain a bit more about the Green Man ?

Mike November 27th, 2007 at 11:33 am

Oh Mike - how long have you got?
The Green Man is most commonly recognised as a particular kind of mediaeval ecclesiastic carving, which shows a face with leaves growing from its mouth and/or with leaves for hair. There are variations where the face becomes part of a single leaf. Some scholars have interpreted the Green Man as an image of death, such that after burial, our bodies become nourishment for trees and plants. However, Green Man carvings typically depict a face which is alive (or as alive as a carving can be) sometimes seeming to be angry or in pain. The image or idea of a person becoming a plant is one, which we also find in the myth of Daphne - who became a laurel tree in order to escape Apollo’s amorous advances – and also in traditions such as the Burry Man of South Queensferry and Jack-in-the-Green of May Day celebrations, as well as countless others.
The romantic view of nature as a purely positive force is a relatively modern one. Prior to the industrial revolution the natural landscape was largely perceived as a wilderness to be tamed and conquered by man. Since the industrial revolution this view has changed, art, literature and even politics have increasingly portrayed the countryside as ‘good’ and the city as ‘bad’.
In a nutshell - the Green Man has become a symbol for the symbiotic relationship, which we imagine previous, societies to have had, with the natural world.

Gaby December 8th, 2007 at 11:40 am

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