The Embrace - April 2016

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mockingbird

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The Embrace


Probably my shortest report ever!!!!

I saw this upon flickr weirdly enough an it caught my eye, so upon a big trip earlier this year on the way home we decided to take a detour, an make the visit to get some photos of this weird and odd "statue".
Before we arrived we could see the skeleton heads on a narrow road, it had been intriguing me since I saw the statue, an for a few weeks before the trip I kept looking at them, people who lived around the area find them creepy, but I think its rather neat and even though its odd and probably shouldn't belong on a forum, I felt the need to document it and explain its "embrace". Many people wouldn't even know it was there an if not on the right road, you would miss it completely, the surrounding area was full of old rusty cars but upon my visit I was too late to see these or document them :( so the sculpture/statue will have to do, I hope this report is alright as the statue remains derelict now, along with the shed :D

I am sure many of you may find this interesting.

History

“The Embrace” is made by a chap named John. John created the sculpture on his return from a visit to the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan in 2000- 2001 where he was a guest of the Nuba Rehabilitation, Relief and Development Organisation (N.R.R.D.O.) during the time of the genocide. He witnessed first hand a mass attempt to wipe out a cultural identity through ethnic cleansing, slavery and fierce attacks on the traditional homelands. More recently there has been a fragile cease fire in the Nuba Mountains (the same agreement that is currently barely holding in Darfur) and when John returned to the region in January this year he says that, despite the suffering, he experienced a sense of resistance living in everyone he met. John finds it difficult to talk about his work (like most artists) but hopes that the sculpture asks the question “What is the future for the Nuba people?” and reminds us that in this ever-shrinking world we are never far away from what is happening in places such as the Nuba Mountains.


So with all this being said, its stayed in the field for many a years, an towns folk find it odd but many love the fact its local to the community an its "the embrace". The size of them is daunting, especially standing next to them an reaching the hip area of the statue shows its height, shame I have no selfie of this.
The shed in the pictures was his area where he made this, but as I said shame I missed out on lots of old cars which was in the field opposite this.

On with the photos.


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Bit odd and creepy for some, but hope it finds its place here cheers for looking everyone! more coming soon ;)
 
Excellent. I'd seen an exhibition with some of Buckely's 'Landmines' series but didn't realise 'The Nuba Survival' could be seen so easily.

If the quote is correct then surely Buckley would want the sculpture seen by people or else that question would never be asked.
 
Thanks for posting those images here. They certainly belong in that landscape and your images make a powerful statement. A very potent reminder of the World we live in today.
 
I have shot this a couple of times. A great piece of work in an unlikely setting with a powerful thought provoking story.
There should be more roadside art in Britain.
 
Really loved the write up - i think you can look at a piece of sculpture or art and it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of people - i guess thats the real beauty of art.
After reading the write up i think it leaves you in no doubt what it means.
Beautiful and chilling at the same time.
Thanks so much for sharing probably wont see a post quite like this again.
 
Really loved the write up - i think you can look at a piece of sculpture or art and it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of people - i guess thats the real beauty of art.
After reading the write up i think it leaves you in no doubt what it means.
Beautiful and chilling at the same time.
Thanks so much for sharing probably wont see a post quite like this again.


It certainly packs a statement, an thank you I am sure we will see this again soon on the forums, once people track it down ;)
 

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