Leeds City Museum

I have to admit that having been away from Leeds for a year has made me appreciate the city a lot more. I feel that I have become a lot more involved within university, as well as taking advantage of some of the local sites around the city. That's why during a visit into town this weekend I chose to stop by the Leeds City Museum. I particularly likes the Leeds Story gallery as I rarely think of Leeds having much history aside from being an industrial city.

The museum in Millennium Square, originally opened in 1819, but re-opened in 2008 and used to be the Mechanic's Institute. Millenium Square has recently been renovated and contains many modern bars and restaurants, so I really like the contrast between the old and new buildings within the square. When researching into it I came across a story concerning the 'Leeds Tiger', a stuffed animal within the museum. It was so loved by the locals that when the museum planned to remove it the Yorkshire Post newspaper held a campaign to keep it. What I found to be quite interesting was that it originally came to the museum as a tiger skin rug which was then combined with a number of other tiger skins to create the overall tiger effect. The museum had wanted to get rid of it as it had been stuffed with straw and had for over a century had a permanent sagginess to it, as well as the possibility of it being dangerous due to the Victorians who may have preserved it with arsenic soap.

Eadweard Muybridge at Tate Britain

When I go back to London at Christmas I will be going to this Eadweard Muybridge exhibition at the Tate Britain. Studying art at school, Muybridge's name came up regularly as being one of the most influential photographers ever.

He created many images of animals and humans in motion, including proving that a horse can 'fly' as it lifts all four hooves off the ground at one point during running. This was something that had never been seen before. He also contributed towards the development of cinema by creating the zoopraxiscope, which was a way of projecting animated versions of his photographs as short sequences.

I love going to the Tate Britain as it's such a large space where history and art are combined, and this exhibition is a perfect example of what can be displayed. The exhibition is the first time in which his full range of art will be displayed. It's on until 16th January so a Christmas holiday visit will be needed!

Leland Stanford Jr., on his pony 'Gypsy'

'Phases of a stride by a pony while Cantering' 1879

National Museum - Prague

At Easter I had the opportunity to go to Prague for a long weekend, and managed to get to the National Museum just at the end of Wenceslas Square. The largest museum in the Czech Republic, the aim of the museum is to enhance the sense of national identity and awareness that CZ is part of the European framework.

Unfortunately when I visited it the weather was against me, however you could tell that the museum itself is an amazing piece of architecture, with many a typical gargoyle.

The most interesting thing I found about the museum was the wide collection of stuffed animals that it held. I had no idea that that many species existed, and although slightly miffed at first by the idea of being in a room with so many of them I actually found it incredibly interesting.

Design Museum : Urban Africa

I'm very lucky to live close to London so it's easy for me to pop over to the Design Museum near London Bridge to have a ganders at their current exhibitions. I love the way that one week it can be focused on fashion, and the next the attention can be turned to photography. It's ever changing.

Following on from my last post concerning the photography project of George Logan, where he put African wildlife into unexpected settings, 'Urban Africa', a photographic exhibition by David Adjaye currently being shown at the Design Museum until 5th September, follows on a similar African theme.

Architect David Adjaye has taken photographs of African cities as part of an ongoing project to study new patterns of urbanism. The idea behind the images is to show Africa in a different limelight. Although usually considered to be a very underdeveloped country, Adjaye has used his architect's eye to create images that argue with this preconception.

Similar to my last post this exhibition stood out to me as I liked the way it portrays the unexpected. We make assumptions about where things should be placed, or how they should look, and when someone changes these it makes an interesting piece of work.