(Not about language. Art and entertainment.)
From Chris Ambidge, who’s visiting family in Preston, England, some postcards yesterday from the Barton Grange Garden Centre in Brock (near Preston) with illustrations of the extraordinary urinals in the place. Which turn out to be the work of San Francisco artist Clark Sorenson. Flowers and shells.
Here are three of the (many) flowers (calla lily, red hibiscus, jack-in-the-pulpit), illustrating a (location-appropriate) phallic theme, plus one of the shells:
From his website:
Clark Sorensen has created some of the most amazing and beautiful urinals you may ever see. These large-scale flowers and shells, deftly crafted of high fire porcelain, are arrestingly beautiful and create a whimsical marriage between beauty and functionality. The strange blend of lyric form and unmentionable men’s bathroom fixture has been described as unsettling, humorous and inspired. Each sculpture is meticulously hand built and one-of-a-kind. Each is formed from high fire porcelain and fired to cone 10 (2300 deg. F). And while these pieces are primarily intended as works of art, they are also fully functioning vitreous porcelain fixtures that can be plumbed and used, in fact, the artist encourages it!
He also makes gorgeous sinks, and more ordinary sculptures.
As for Barton Grange Garden Centre, in addition to the high-end garden shops and the extraordinary loos, it has a café, a restaurant, a cook shop, and a food shop.
January 8, 2012 at 12:17 pm |
I want a bidet
January 8, 2012 at 2:45 pm |
Glad that Barton Grange’s loos found their way to Palo Alto! (though none of these images are the cards I sent you)
January 8, 2012 at 10:07 pm |
Rather than scanning your postcards in and then editing them, I simply downloaded the images from Sorenson’s website. There are significant differences, of course; the Barton Grange urinals are floor-standing, rather than wall-mounted, for example.