Ladbury PR

Confessions of an overseas intern in London Part 3 – Open air art misty wet with rain

By Sanka Pityana

Last Tuesday we had a Ladbury ‘day out’ - a team trip to the stunning Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) just a few miles from Wakefield Westgate station to see the arresting work of British Trinidadian artist Zak Ové, who we represent. We met up at Kings Cross Station where I paid a visit to Platform 9 ¾ (a "not so secret" Harry Potter fan) before meeting everybody at Pret for a last-minute coffee. Onto the train we hopped, heading towards fresh air and wetness. After catching a taxi to the YSP, we stopped to take in where we were, a coffee in the main building with views to die for over the rolling hills peppered with sheep, before heading on out in search of art.

We came across work by the likes of Henry Moore as well as Tony Cragg on our quest to find Zak Ové’s Black and Blue: The Invisible Men and The Masque of Blackness – 80 identical two-metre-tall figures. We then made our way around the park, encountering cows – a couple of whom licked my hand with thistle-like tongues. We also walked through a wooded area with fantastic trees – some sprouting Oyster Mushrooms, others growing in strange shapes and others with faces etched in their trunks. In the wood, we discovered a site specific installation representing the cycle of wood by David Nash - called 71 Steps which was made of charred oak steps with 30 tons of coal embedded between them.

Standing on the bridge over the lake was breathtaking. Facing one way gave you a view of a little house with a moss-covered roof nestled in the wood while facing the other way we could see the rest of the park and the café. We then headed to pay homage to the Iron Tree by Ai Weiwei in a little church yard.

Eventually, the cold and wet got to our feet and so we took refuge inside for lunch, new socks and shoes dried by the hand dryers in the bathrooms (the Ladbury  PR team is now equipped with matching chatty feet socks). Needless to say, the train ride home was a place for naps and relaxation after a long day out in the misty wet with rain.