Tags
Art, blue skies, Bottle of Notes, Captain James Cook, Claes Oldenbrough, Coosje Van Bruggen, journal, message in a bottle, Middlesbrough, MIMA, public art, sculpture, sky, words, writing
That’s the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) in the background.
This monumental work by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen was inspired by the writings of Middlesbrough born explorer Captain James Cook RN. According to an article I’ve found on the BBC News website the words that form the distinctive bottle shape are taken from Captain Cook’s journal from his first voyage on HMS. Endeavour and read, “We had every advantage we could desire in observing the whole of the passage of the Planet Venus over the Sun’s disc“.
A close up.
To quote the BBC News article again, “Now said to be “part of the landscape”, the sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen still arouses intrigue from visitors and is often used as a climbing frame“.
Viewed from the roof of MIMA.
