Opening
times: Tue-Fri 12-5pm; Sat & Sun 11am -4pm;
Closed
Monday
An exhibition of dynamic new views of Oxfords most
celebrated building, the Radcliffe Camera.
Emma Doughertyis
a UK based artist and animator who works with a range
of materials including clay, found objects, stamps
and digital art. Emma’s prevailing fascination is with
the Radcliffe Camera, Oxford, and portraying it in
new and quirky ways.
“The Radcliffe Camera is utterly beguiling. I have
always loved beautiful, old libraries for their innate
romanticism, and this iconic building has to be one
of the finest reading rooms in the world.
Its perfectly proportioned form satisfies the obsession
I have had ever since I was little with collecting
and with arranging, organising and displaying my collections.
There is a real pleasure in sourcing the ideal object
from my diverse collections for a pediment, arch, or
the distinctively shaped domed roof. Like the ancient
volumes contained on the bookshelves, many of the objects
in my assemblages have been in my possession for years
and retain a sentimental value, thus imparting my fascination
with the Rad Cam.
Located at the very heart of the university, the Radcliffe
Camera embodies the history and tradition of Oxford.
This moves me to contemplate it in different ways and
to inspire a renewed veneration of it and the space
it occupies.”
Tim Steward lives
and works in Oxford and trained in classical drawing
at Lavender Hill Studios in London.
“My drawing of the
Radcliffe Camera has become central to my progression
in the practice of ‘seeing’ and ‘drawing’. Some subjects
you just keep coming back to as an artist, and there
is always a good reason for this. The pure form, the
simple rhythm of spaces between doors and windows and
the disappearing curves of the Radcliffe Camera are
a joy to observe. This is a building of beautiful proportions,
towering, magnificent, and wonderfully challenging
to draw. There is, however, a mysterious draw about
the Radcliffe Camera which goes beyond its visual splendour.
Radcliffe Square has become for me a ‘trysting place’
– a place where I can sit, ponder and simply be, an
environment of simple beauty and gentle rhythms which
nourishes my spirit. Early morning it is simply majestic.
By day, in the heat of the summer, the building throbs
for attention as the crowds of tourists pay their cursory
glances. By night it has a foreboding, even haunting
presence, a presence so large that it threatens to
float out of the square which contains it.” |
