I’d read that this was ‘a bit pagan in parts‘, and as soon as we stepped through the gates into the Treasurer’s House garden I found myself saying ‘I see what they mean’.
The Minster looks on, shocked.
The Treasurer’s House garden is normally a formal and refined kind of place, with statues and clipped box shrubs in pots. On Saturday night it was completely transformed, lights and smoke, dancing figures and animal shapes in metalwork and trees near the walls suddenly moving and not being trees at all but people.
The large scale projections on buildings tend to be the focus of Illuminating York, but perhaps shouldn’t be. The ’supporting pieces’ are often as memorable. This one certainly was.
It was beautiful as well as weird.
Illuminating York is all about presenting the place ‘in a new light’, and this definitely did. Fabulous.
We had some difficulty working out where the rest of the ‘trail’ mentioned was, which is a shame. I’ve only just found the map on the Illuminating York website, but a bit late now to find the Gray’s Court and Bedern Hall parts of it, which we missed completely.
After a quick half in the Cross Keys we headed for the Minster. I have a few photos and thoughts to share from that. More soon.
More information
The Treasurer’s House garden supporting piece was part of ‘Spark’, ‘a new strand of Illuminating York for 2013, which will enable emerging artists to showcase their ideas and creations through a mentored commission’. In partnership with York St John University. Spark: Tree of Life
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