CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
I'm in favour of art, even public art, and sometimes even Paolozzi. However;
https://www.sustrans.org.uk/scotland/national-cycle-network/artroots-fund
We creep about muddy byways and fiddly suburban workarounds and we cower on Leith Walk and there's a metal owl being planted in Newcraighall and some dancing in Kilmarnock.
Do car paths get art to encourage uptake? No, just a £3 billion direct public budget, millions in advertising and billions in implicit subsidies.
“and sometimes even Paolozzi”
This is NEWS!
Wots changed?
Not keen on his sculpture apart from Vulcan but some of the 2D work's acceptable.
How much can be applied for?
Grants of up to £5,000 are available.
Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?
Any one fancy supporting my grant application for a retelling of Avengers using the medium of bicycles and getting to work? there will be approximately £4,000 behind the bar for anyone who gets involved.
I’m happy to criticise Sustrans for all sorts of things, but over the years the artworks along routes have been an important part of ‘engaging’ people and actually getting them interested in paths.
On the Boston-Lincoln cycle route there are fabby art works made from industrial materials. Old ship chains made into sheep for instance. I'm all for public art and wildflower borders and anything else prettifying the landscape.
I think awful transport policies are another issue.
Might apply for funding to remove some of the intricate metalwork sculptures on their paths.
“Do car paths get art to encourage uptake?”
Interesting question.
You are aware that there are various sculptures at the Gyle, mostly marginalised by being in the car park!
As for “car paths”, what about the very expensive M8 artworks?
IWRATS said;
I'm in favour of art, even public art
I'm in favour of art, even public art
I'm in favour of art, even public art
I'm in favour of art, even public art
'Kay?
@steveo
Four grand, eh? Decent bottle each and a spare.
The poets' heads in the Gyle can be inaccessible at weekends as the security guys there can't figure that anyone would want to be there outwith the corporate week.
“The poets' heads in the Gyle can be inaccessible at weekends”
When did that start happening?
Must be all the riffraff the trams bring in...
I quite like The Lost VII by David Kemp.
I'd rather have Kemp, David Mach and Andy Scott on our Sustrans routes than Paolozzi.
It's something I read in Literary Corstorphine.
https://litcors.wordpress.com/
I've seen them myself on a Saturday ride, with no problems.
“The poets' heads in the Gyle can be inaccessible at weekends”
When I was playing Ingress I was there quite a lot (out of office hours) as it was a dense collection of control points, never got harassed by security but never felt exactly comfortable there.
David Mach is very good and a nice guy too.
Never visiting Namibia! Could play sunshine on (water of) Leith on repeat for miles. Bonus points if you have the repeater speakers out of sync so a cyclist traveling at just the right speed only hears one line or so of the song.
I don't understand all this hate for Paolozzi, son of Leith and probably Edina's greatest ever artist. David Mach's a nice chap but he's pretty much been in a creative rut for twenty years.
As for Andy Scott - personally I find his sculptures to be horrendous, egomaniacal monuments to kitsch and bad taste. They're like giant 3D Athena posters. His popularity amongst various Scottish local authority elected members, who have commissioned a number of woeful stainless steel horrors is, to the say the least, mystifying. One theory might be that he appeals to folk who might say "I don't know much about art but I can sort of tell what that is". Or something.
I think the Kelpies are magnificent. Nice to know that makes me stupid.
I’m sure Andy Scott will somehow have to come to terms with the fact that he’s given pleasure to tens of thousands of people who aren’t judged the right sort.
I like Heavy Horse, at Glasgow Business Park, more than the Kelpies. Maybe it's the modest size of it, maybe it's just because it's a horse.
I also like the Carmyle heron, which I didn't know was Scott's until today, even though I passed it three years ago.
all this hate for Paolozzi
Can I formally refer myself to the moderators for retrospective adjudication please?
I love the Kelpies too. Not sure if they're art, but they are magnificent.
I'm a big fan of the Kelpies too and recommend the tour where you can go inside one of them.
Also fantastic to cycle past in the dark, all lit up and no one else around.
“Can I formally refer myself to the moderators for retrospective adjudication please?”
People are allowed to change their minds.
(File under Brexit.)
I also appreciate the art and poetry on the Loch Leven heritage trail. Combined with the Vane farm bird hides and the coffee/food options, there is something for everyone on that trail
I like the Kelpies. They are both monumental and elegant. That's very hard to pull off.
@Stickman, I didn't use any of those words.
I can see that folk like the Kelpies. I find them too huge and dominating. Verging on quasi-fascistic aesthetics. The earlier heavy horse is okay, but it points towards his love of giant monumental scale and apparent desire to appeal to drivers on motorways, thus guaranteeing him a huge, if not very attentive audience. I have read that he insists that his sculptures are sited near to motorways or major trunk roads: hence the Cumbernauld statue is nowhere near the town centre. Apparently this seems to be down to his gigantic ego.
Just because something's popular, doesn't make it any good. Jack Vettriano, Athena posters, fluffy kitten videos on the internet, etc.
BTW I will happily be called an elitist if it means I don't have to like Scott, Vettriano, et al.
P.S.: - Whenever I see the Kelpies it makes me think of this similarly bombastic sculpture recently installed in the centre of Skopje.
@crowriver - That looks nationalistic. I don't think the Kelpies are like that.
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