The OU's outdoor art collection

In this crazy post-pandemic alternate universe, have more or less got into a routine of going up to Milton Keynes every other week to work Thursday and Friday on campus. I’m rarely in the company of anyone from my direct team, as they’re all firmly wedded to working at home, but there are usually varying numbers of other people from the wider unit there. A few months back I also elected to move to a condensed hour arrangement whereby I get Friday afternoons off in exchange for working slightly longer days on Monday to Thursday, which enables me to drive home to Reading on Friday afternoons while it’s still light and slightly less traffic-heavy.

Thanks to this arrangement, I chose to spend an hour on Friday afternoon a few weeks back going around the OU’s outdoor art collection, armed with this explanatory leaflet. The Walton Hall campus contains a number of outdoor artworks, of varying ages.

The trail starts with two alongside the Library: ‘Bounding Bull’ and ‘Modern Misses’ by the Zimbabwean sculptor Dominic Benhura.

'Bounding Bull'

'Modern Misses'

Staying by the Library but walking along to the end, there are two more: another one by Benhura, “Viper Sniper”, and “We walk our own path” by Richard Harris.

'Viper Sniper'

'We walk our own path'

Turning and looking across the road to the Perry Building, there are two by Ray Castell, “Learning Together” and “A Kind of Infinity”.

'Learning Together'

'A Kind of Infinity'

After that it’s over to the Cedar Lawn where there are two carvings made out of a 250-year-old cedar tree that apparently died due to an infestation by the Small Cedar Aphid. One is out of the trunk of the tree in situ – this fox is part of it – and the other is a bench beside it with a lovely carving of a rabbit (or poss hare) at one end. Annoyingly, there was someone sitting on the bench at the time I passed so I didn’t photograph it. I was surprised to learn that the sculptor, Tom Harvey, had made the carvings with a chainsaw. Not really what you imagine as a sculpting tool.

Part of 'Contemplation'

The next one was “e=mc²”, outside Christodoulou Meeting Room 1. This is by Scott Forrest and according to the trail leaflet, this stone sculpture “encapsulates an intellectual energy releasing from the unrefined mass”. Fair enough.

'e=mc²'

Nearby, outside the Alan Turing Building, is 'C4 in S4' by John Jaworski, designed in 1989 for a TV programme to accompany the OU module 'Introduction to Pure Mathematics'.

'C4 in S4'

On to one of my faves, ‘For and Against’ by Jane Muir. As this is built into the wall of the Central Walkway, I assume this was part of the original 1970s campus build.

'For and Against'

I didn’t go close up to ‘Squishy and Squashy’ - another one by Scott Forrest - as the Venables Courtyard Garden is a bit overgrown these days. It's made from local limestone, apparently.

'Squishy and Squashy'

Also in the Venables Courtyard Garden is my favourite OU sculpture, 'This land is our land' by Graham Mills. To reproduce the blurb:

This work in slate represents the pioneering spirit of all settlers who inhabit the most unlikely of spaces. This echoes our collective Milton Keynes experience in the early days.

'This land is our land'

'Star' by Anthony Hayes, outside the Wolfson Building, is "a simple shape of a six pointed star".

'Star'

Almost at the end. Passing the Robert Hooke Building there's a lighting installation that just looks like regular lighting so is easily overlooked. It's by Simon Patterson, apparently a 1996 Turner Prize nominee, and is called 'Gort, Klaatu Barada Nikto' as per The Day the Earth stood still.

'Gort, Klaatu Barada Nikto'

The final piece on the trail is the Millennium Knot Garden in the Berrill Courtyard. This is a lovely piece comprised of four topiaries depicting the OU logo. It was the bright idea of the wife of a former Vice-Chancellor.

The Millennium Knot Garden, viewed from inside the Berrill Building

 

Back in April, the OU’s Estates department put on an interesting Showcase event – this self-guided Art Tour was part of that, though all I did then was pick up the leaflet rather than actually walk around the art trail. I also joined a Historic Buildings tour and a grounds tour, both led by people heartwarmingly keen on the OU's campus. Features of those tours included a look at a newly-commissioned memorial carving on the lawn to the rear of the Jennie Lee Building. This lawn had a couple of large cedar trees on it at one point, both of which have fallen - Matt reckons due to some wind tunnel effect created by the loss/rearrangement of buildings in this area, but I have no idea. Anyway: the aforementioned Tom Harvey was commissioned again to do the memorial carving. It's got a couple of little brass plaques on it, and I gather more will be added - though I can't remember what's written on them.

The memorial carving

Being a bit odd, I was interested to learn that this lawned area alongside Jennie Lee used to house a previous Geoffrey Crowther Building (there's a current, fairly new, Geoffrey Crowther building further over towards the Hub). Apparently it had various courtyards, which sounds rather nice. Unfortunately it also, allegedly, had some structural problems and got demolished as part of a new building programme on the campus. I'm not sure when. Update to that: this Digital Archive page says it was in 2011 - which was the year I started work at the OU, though I can't say I remember the demolition so it must have happened before I got there. Here's a picture of the original Crowther Building, taken around 1970.

I also hadn't realised that the original walled garden was much bigger than the current Legacy Garden - in fact, part of the walls must have been removed as a building has been built in the middle of it. The grounds tour chaps pointed out the bit of the end wall that you can still see when walking from the Hub to the Legacy Garden - never noticed it before.

The original end wall of the walled garden

The Legacy Garden today

And a final cute thing: the Vaughan Harley family were one of the last families to live in Walton Hall itself. One of their children carved an image of Yogi Bear into one of the flagstones outside Walton Hall. Another thing I'd never noticed before.

Yogi Bear