Hester Reeve returns to Yorkshire Sculpture Park

[Image: Hester Reeve – The Game Plan 2014. Courtesy the artist & YSP. Photo: Jonty Wilde]

 

Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is having a busy year. Only recently has it been shortlisted as one of six innovative, world-class museums for the Art Fund Prize, Museum of the Year 2014; has refurbished the beautiful on-site 18^th Century Chapel; and has just opened exhibitions from the likes of illustrator Tom Frost and highly acclaimed American artist Ursula von Rydingsvard.

YSP is the largest sculpture park in Europe, mounting a world-class, year-round temporary exhibitions programme including some of the world’s leading artists across five indoor galleries and the open air.

On June 28^th, YSP opened Ymedaca, an exhibition of work by British artist Hester Reeve, which will culminate in a one-day open-air experimental academy on 30 August 2014. Reeve’s practice encompasses live art, philosophy, drawing and photography.

Ymedaca is the result of Reeve’s two-year residency at YSP, where the artist re-mapped the Park as a contemporary translation of the very first university established by Plato in 5th century BC Greece.

For the Ymedaca academy, Reeve has collaborated with ‘Guardians’ selected from seven local groups to devise a series of events, known as ‘liberalational manoeuvres’, which run from dawn to dusk at the Park, on 30 August. Rather than working with experts or philosophers, Reeve celebrates everyday passions by working with interest groups, all of which are dedicated to activities that enrich their own lives. The local groups involved are Cantabile choral group, Hand Tool Users United, The Magick Lounge, The Royal British Legion, West Yorkshire Astronomical Society, West Yorkshire Pagan Meet up and Yorkshire Sun Society.

Inspired by the National Arts Education Archive (NAEA), based at YSP, Ymedaca is both a conceptual sculpture and a concrete public event offering visitors a unique chance to experience creative events inspired by the Platonic questions, ‘what is a good life, indeed, what is the good?’ and ‘how can education bring joy to the soul?’.

The exhibition runs until September 7^th 2014.For more information visit ysp.co.uk

 

OTHER LINKS:

The National Arts Education Archive (NAEA) – www.ysp.co.uk/naea

Tom Frost exhibition – www.ysp.co.uk/exhibitions/tom-frost-the-wild-collection

Ursula von Rydingsvard exhibition – www.ysp.co.uk/exhibitions/ursula-von-rydingsvard-2014

Museum of the Year 2014 – www.artfund.org/prize