Museum of free

So while I was out and about in the city today, I decided I would go to the Norwich Castle museum, as I get in for free with my student card. I've been there before, but that doesn't mean I won't be going again when I have free time and nothing to do. There were a few pieces that I particularly enjoyed, however.

The first was The Tower of Babel by Tobias Verhaecht. Absolutely stunning. And enormous painting, at 198.2cm x 232.2cm. My impressions: 'The spiraling mountain dwarfs what is left of the city below, which has been destroyed to make room for the God-vessel. Tons of stone are hauled up this tireless nautilus-road by workers, who house themselves in the grand archways. Down below in the corner of the painting, King Nimrod oversees the creation of each stone and has become no more than a madman of Satanic proportions, striving to reach a God that is utterly infallible.'

The second piece was by a man named Karsten Bott (I didn't see the installation, only one piece), and the piece was called 'Chewing Gums'. It was a small case mounted on the wall with numerous shelves, each with around 20 pieces of chewed gum and various other items that he apparently found around Norwich, and placed on display here. Really cool, as I also like finding things and could probably find some way to do something similar. Also a very interesting thing to think about for the next project that involves visiting somewhere new and documenting it.

The final piece was by the late Ian Skoyles. This guy is awesome! He takes various bits of numerous jigsaw puzzles and puts them together as a landscape. Various bit, such as a church from one puzzle, a boat from another, trees from somewhere else, all fit together. Finding the pieces that fit perfectly into the other puzzles would be difficult, I'm sure. The placard next to the piece (called 'Connoisseur Deluxe', btw) said that his work reminds us that landscape art is always part reality, part fiction.

There was also a larger exhibition by Susan Gunn. While I like the ideas behind her work of representing barren landscapes and other things... most of it was pretty boring to me. The idea is cool, and the pieces that obviously had a bit more thought put into them were better. Its all abstract stuff, anyway. Kinda cool, but has a lot more potential, in my opinion.

So tomorrow, I actually need to start getting work done on my research portfolio that is due on 16 January! I at least need to get most of the work done before I go north for a few days on the 8th... I've also started watching Samurai Champloo, and will hopefully have the first two seasons of Code Monkeys soon... May the gods have mercy on my soul!