Use the Questions and Activities to Explore the Art with Your Families

at Salisbury Cathedral

For nearly eight hundred years, Salisbury Cathedral has been a significant holy building, a special place for millions of visitors and Christians. At the heart of the Cathedral’s life is its worship.

Take a virtual tour around the Cathedral’s 2020 Art Exhibition ‘Celebrating 800 years of Spirit and Endeavour’ located both inside the building and outside on the Cathedral lawns.

This special art exhibition aims to capture the spirit of the medieval people who came together in faith to build Salisbury Cathedral. Through their hard work and endeavour, we have this incredible building today which is evidence of the remarkable vision and creativity of these ordinary people.

Use the questions and activities to explore the art with your families.

Post photos of your creations and pictures inspired by the exhibition on Twitter using #spiritandendeavour

Curated by Jacquiline Creswell, Salisbury Cathedral’s Visual Arts Adviser.

What’s a curator, you ask? A person who creates exhibitions by collecting works of art or objects together to tell a story. Death of a Working Hero by Grayson Perry

This tapestry by Grayson Perry is about the mine workers in Durham.

It prompts us to remember the ordinary people who worked to build Salisbury Cathedral and reflect on their legacy.

• How do you think the medieval stone masons and carpenters who built Salisbury Cathedral would like to be remembered? Time and Place by Bruce Munro

The effect of light is an important part of Bruce Monro’s work.

For this work, Munro used pixilated photographs of Salisbury Cathedral taken during the 800th anniversary year.

He wants people to think about their connection to the world at a particular time and place.

• Take a photo, identify 5 key colours. Create a new picture using just those colours. Daedalus by Eduardo Paolozzi

This machine-like sculpture of Daedalus combines Sir Eduardo Paolozzi’s artistic skills with an interest in technology and science. Daedalus was a mythical Ancient Greek sculptor, best known for building the great labyrinth in Crete for the minotaur. This reflects the Paolozzi’s own skills and accomplishments as an artist.

• How does this sculpture fit into the ‘spirit and endeavour’ theme of the exhibition?

• Find out about the legend of Daedalus and Icarus. A Candle by Youki Hirakawa

Youki Hirakawa is a Japanese contemporary artist. Through the burning of the candle he conveys a sense of time passing.

Watch the video.

Think about time – sometimes it seems to go quickly and sometimes slowly.

• Do we always use our time well or is it sometimes wasted? • How does watching the candle make you feel about time? Clockswarm by Bill Woodrow

Bill Woodrow’s sculpture shows a swarm of worker bees covering a clock. There is no sound although it encourages us to think about the buzzing of bees and how this has silenced the ticking of the clock.

• Does time slow down if you are not able to see the time on a clock or watch? • When you are next outside, watch and listen to a bee. • Which flowers do bees like best?

• The world’s oldest working clock is in Salisbury Cathedral, it doesn’t have a clock face either. Find out how Medieval people knew what time it was. • Bees are amazing creatures. Find out more about the life of bees. Grip (Net) by Antony Gormley

Anthony Gormley is probably the best-known sculptor in Britain today. He has always been interested in the human figure and often uses his own body as a model for his sculptures. The Angel of the North is Gormley’s most famous artwork and is ten times taller than the average human.

This figure is made from stainless steel and sits high up above our heads in the arch.

• Why do you think this figure is placed above our heads in the arch? • Find out about other sculptures by Anthony Gormley.

• Make a figure from clay or papier mâché. Threshold to the Kingdom by Mark Wallinger

Threshold to the Kingdom is a video showing slowed down images of people arriving at an airport, representing going from Earth to Heaven. The artist, Mark Wallinger, wants us to think about Heaven and what it means to us.

Watch the video.

• What effect does the music have? • How do you feel when you arrive on your holiday or back home? • What do you think Heaven is like?

• On one side of a piece of paper, draw a picture of a door. Turn the paper over and draw what could be on the other side of the door. It could be somewhere you know like your bedroom or perhaps it is somewhere in your imagination. • Write a poem about opening a door and describe what is on the other side. The Reader by Stanza

The Reader is a large data visualisation sculpture of the artist Stanza wearing a hoodie, reading a book. The technology and human form are combined – like a human machine or a robot. This sculpture challenges us to think about the future for humans and technology – can we live without technology now?

• How much do you rely on technology every day?

• Technology gives us so much, but does it take anything away from us?

• What is special about being human? Somewhere in the Universe by Daniel Chadwick

The artist, Daniel Chadwick, describes his work: “Somewhere in The Universe… is a cluster of stars. Or some salt spilled on glass table top… Or markings on the back of a dinosaur. Or moss on a stone. Chewing gum on the pavement…”

What does the pattern from the mobiles make you think of?

Chadwick likes to make his artwork fun and often uses bright colours.

• Create or draw an abstract pattern that represents something you see every day such as daisies in the grass or books on a shelf. Use bright colours to colour it in.

• Make your own abstract mobile. Crucifixion 8 by Craigie Aichison

The image of the crucifixion is one that we are quite familiar with.

In his painting, Craigie Aitchison uses light and colour effectively to bring your focus to Jesus as a bright white figure on the cross.

The background is simple and abstract.

• Do you like this painting? Why? • How does it make you feel? Heaven - Athens Spring by David Mach

David Mach is known for his ‘busy’ collages and sculptures. He proposes the idea that someone has pressed ‘pause’ on a scene. These pictures represent heaven through the four seasons.

• What do you think heaven looks like? • Where do you think God is in these collages? • Which collage do you like best? Why? • Make a list of things that link to each season • Create your own collage for your favourite season. Heaven - Istanbul Summer by David Mach

David Mach is known for his ‘busy’ collages and sculptures. He proposes the idea that someone has pressed ‘pause’ on a scene. These pictures represent heaven through the four seasons.

Henry Moore is one of the most important artists of the modern era.

He wanted people to stop and look at art and reflect on what they see.

• What do you see when you look at this sculpture? • What difference would it make if the sculpture was a different colour? Stairway by Danny Lane

Danny Lane’s luminescent ‘stairway to heaven’ rises from the grass and points towards the sky. Where does it end?

• Read AA Milne’s poem ‘Halfway Down’.

• Make your own steps from things you have at home – wooden blocks, Lego, cardboard boxes - what could be at the top?

• Draw a stairway – colour it in and write your goal for today in the bubble at the top. On the steps write or draw the things you need to do to get to the top. When Soak becomes Spill by Subdoh Gupta

The sun reflects brightly off the stainless-steel surface of Subodh Gupta’s sculpture. This bucket is overflowing with everyday items including pots and pans. We often use a bucket to hold water, which is essential for life, but this huge overflowing bucket shows that we often waste things in our world.

• What is the effect of the sculpture being shiny? Why do you think the artist chose to make it from stainless steel? • What do you think is the message from this artwork?

• Draw a bucket and fill it with the things that you want to look after and protect in our world. Formation 1 (The Dappled Light of the Sun) by Conrad Shawcross In this sculpture, Conrad Shawcross is exploring shape – the tetrahedron. Shawcross has used many different sized tetrahedra to bring together angles and shapes that twist and turn into this flowing creation. Look at the shadows that are created on the ground.

• How does the sculpture link to the other buildings around it? • What shapes can you see in the sculpture? • What does the sculpture make your think of?

• Make your own tetrahedron. • Create your own sculpture using 3D shapes. Skystation by Peter Newman

Peter Newman’s sculpture is designed for people to lie down and look up. Newman reminds us that, ’Gravity dictates the earth contains a buried past of dinosaurs and archaeology, the surface reveals the activity of present day life, but what is above is an empty field of possibility…’ Skystation is an opportunity to use our imaginations about the unknown space above us.

Lie down in a safe space outside and look up...

• What can you see? How does it make you feel? • What do you think about when you look at the sky? • Use your imagination to write a poem or a story about the sky or space. Sitting Couple on a Bench by Lynn Chadwick

Look carefully at these figures – what shapes can you see? Which is male and which is female?

Lynn Chadwick was a figurative artist. By not adding expression to the faces of the figures, he encouraged people to make their own interpretations of his work.

• Who do these figures make you think of? • What are they thinking? What are they doing? String Quintet by Shirazeh Houshiary

There are five ribbons rising upwards from the ground in this sculpture. The ribbons represent different wavelengths twisting and turning around each other, perhaps a bit like a piece of music.

What sort of music do you like to listen to? How do the different instruments and voices combine in the music?

Find out which instruments you might have in a string quintet.

Make a junk model sculpture which reflects a piece of music you like. Sail by Tony Cragg

Tony Cragg’s sculpture has many layers. It represents different ideas about humans and the connections they make.

This sculpture asks you to look for new meanings and understanding in life.

• How do you connect with people around you? • How do you connect with the past? Work number 2663 MUMS DADS KIDS GODS by Martin Creed

Can you read the message? We are used to reading from left to right, but then this makes no sense. Look again and read vertically - top to bottom.

The artist, Martin Creed, explains that the key concept for the artwork is family. A family can be large or small, sometimes our friends are like our family too.

• Who is in your family? Draw a picture of your them. • Create a family tree.