The first was a visit to see 'Field for the British Isles' by Antony Gormley, which is currently installed at Torre Abbey in Torquay. (We weren't allowed to take photos, so the picture above is from the Torre Abbey website.) It was created in 1993 and has been taken round the UK and installed in various locations. It is made up of 40 000 little terracotta figures, which completely cover the floor of the large barn in the abbey grounds. All the eyes of all the figures are turned to the viewer, which gives them a touching humanity.
Torre Abbey was well worth a visit - the gardens had wonderful, raucously-coloured borders of dahlias, and inside there was lots art - contemporary and period. This mobile was created by children in response to the 'Field'.
Another place I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend was the Doll Museum in Paignton. It's the sort of museum I would love to have; a small, eccentric, ramshackle collection of all kinds of dolls and toys, stuffed into a large shop premises down a side street. The delightful lady who owns it has been collecting dolls since she was a little girl in the 1930s, and gave us a wonderful guided tour all to ourselves, as we were the only visitors at the time.
Sadly, she didn't allow photography in the museum, but gave me permission to take a photo of the window display.
Our final encounter with miniature humanity was a visit to the model village at Babbacombe. Both Mr Kitsch and I remembered it from childhood holidays. I can't say it lived up to my childhood memories, (I think I was confusing it with a different one) but it's certainly lively. It even includes a nudist beach and a cottage on fire!
2 comments:
the devon tourist board should be giving you a job too:0) looks great, i'd love the doll museum
That museum looks like a fun place... also the model village, my fave childhood haunt was the one in Polperro. Lizzie x
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