This post is not necessarily what you are expecting, I thought I would share a ‘perk of being a VIP’. When I found myself stood in Southampton art gallery, watching the curator unlock the glass case that surrounded Auguste Rodin’s crouching woman, a small bronzed sculpture. So along with other members in our group I was stood with a pair of white cotton gloves ready to do something special that very few get to experience.
I grew up being constantly told by my parents that “you look with your eyes, not your hands” and here I was about to dispel this theory.
Bronzed sculptures have always been something of great interest to me, but by their nature, I often miss most of the detail other than the outline shape. But here I was, about to run my gloved hands all over a cast of a sculpture that had been handled with such love and care when sculpted by the artist himself.
It felt amazing, that first touch, the coldness of the material. The feel of the finger marks beneath mine. The detail of the sculpture, you can feel the individual vertebrate in her back, the bones in her shoulders.
This was a wonderful experience that I can’t wait to repeat with other works of arts and artefacts and make the most of my new found ‘perk’.
