Canal Kelpies

[tiger stacker]

If you drive along the M9 Eastwards your eye catches the two great silver heads above the canal.
After watching them rise they look magnificent at dawn.

http://www.thekelpies.co.uk/

 

[Toddy]

I've just seen these on the news The whole site is going to be brilliant, but the Kelpies are iconic

cheers,
M

 

[Monikieman]

Had a wee keek a couple of weeks back. Can't wait till they're finished and the sitre is open to the public.

Well worth a trip.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

I helped at the open day in Sept. and you can walk up to a viewpoint on the opposite bank from them just now.

 

[scottpix]

Must admit I was`nt that impressed as it was being built, but now its finished it does look mighty impressive, especially with a moody sky, will look forward to passing it on the way to the Trossachs .

Scott

 

[boatman]

Is large-scale public art automatically a good thing? The Kelpies look fantastic but depending on sight lines they are an intrusion onto the landscape as are all the other big sculptures. When it comes down to it these works are an imposition of the artistic and other taste of one person, or a small group, onto the rest of us and are designed to be intrusive. Should we have mega loudspeakers so that somebody's choice of music can echo around us when out in the country?

 

[Toddy]

From earliest times people have created specific constructions that in some way give form to landscape; focal points if you will.
From cairns on hilltops to church towers, to carved horses on chalk downs....it's all in it's way 'public art'.

Personally I like the reference points they give us and ones that catch the eye and one thinks, "Oh, that's good ", do double duty.

Andy Scott makes structures that really do 'fit', that really do have visual appeal for the majority. None of the straining to see just what the artist was on while under the creative process/well that didnae work, sort of thing.

http://www.scottsculptures.co.uk/

cheers,
M

 

[ozzy1977]

Personally I cant stand them, I think that they just look wrong, but cant pin down as to what is wrong with them

 

[Mesquite]

Personally I cant stand them, I think that they just look wrong, but cant pin down as to what is wrong with them

Each to their own as they say.

Although I've not seen them in person, only photographs and video I personally think they look magnificent.

They're a lot more vibrant and moving than the Angel of the North which I think is dull and boring.

 

[boatman]

From earliest times people have created specific constructions that in some way give form to landscape; focal points if you will.
From cairns on hilltops to church towers, to carved horses on chalk downs....it's all in it's way 'public art'.

Personally I like the reference points they give us and ones that catch the eye and one thinks, "Oh, that's good ", do double duty.

Andy Scott makes structures that really do 'fit', that really do have visual appeal for the majority. None of the straining to see just what the artist was on while under the creative process/well that didnae work, sort of thing.

http://www.scottsculptures.co.uk/

cheers,
M

So how many "white horse" type figures could the Downs stand? The existing ones, extra for jubilees, how about celebrity profiles like the suggestion a few years ago of one of Diana Dors? Perhaps any handy sloping surface should have the boring grass replaced by a picture? Isn't there a campaign in Scotland against super-size electricity pylons? These would, after all, act as reference points etc.

For me most of the over-size art equates to the size of the ego of the artist.

 

[Toddy]

Nowadays it equates to someone(s) being prepared to pay for the whole shebang, and after the outcry at some of the more 'arty' wastes of money, public art like Andy Scott's is appreciated, and therefore paid for.

Thing is that they do need some upkeep, the ones on the Downs in particular, so I suppose if they are no longer appreciated/ appropriate, they'll just be left to decay.

I had to google Diana Dors Tbh I can't see that one getting many takers or much financial backing to do it either.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[boatman]

The fact that the Downs' figures require upkeep is something in their favour and I do like the idea of picnics having been held for about three thousand years in the same place by the Uffington White Horse when it was being scoured.

The same arguments cannot apply to the hard structures although their decay would be interesting.

 

[dwardo]

I think they looks great

 

[boatman]

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article8655591.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/ps8.jpg

 

[SCOMAN]

Seen them at dawn on Monday they are very impressive and genuinely breathtaking. Love them.