Electrified!

Today we continued our visits to several of the participants in our 'Arts Week' (see my entry for yesterday). This striking wire figure was one of several similar exhibits in one of the houses open to us. The main figure is of galvanised and annealed steel wire, and the red hair is enamelled copper.

This is another example of the wire-work , and then we have a larger figure with flowing hair. In fact, these two latter figures were presented as a pair, as you see here. The artist who worked the magic with the wire is Rachel Ducker, whose web site I link here. A very fine cat lives at this house, too!

The visits we made today were in an area called Jericho. Once upon a time, this was briefly a red-light district, but now it appears to house a surprisingly large concentration of creative artists, and we saw several very good presentations.

Jericho was really best known in the past as housing the many kinds of workers employed in printing, the Oxford University Press buildings being right in the middle of the area. This pub, once a favourite of ours when we lived nearby, is The Bookbinders, a good reminder of the main occupation of the locals. Although the houses in the area were meant as quite modest ones, the area has become very popular (and expensive) since it is so close to the city centre. The printing is done elsewhere these days, and the printers have all gone. The properties we went in were all very smart and classy inside (perhaps because of the artistic inhabitants), and surprising spacious, with some good gardens.

One remarkable building in Jericho is St Barnabas Church, built in the style of a Romanesque basilica. The square tower is like an Italianate campanile, and is widely visible from the surrounding area: many visitors arriving by train from the north see this tower as the first sign of architectural Oxford as they approach the station. Today, the interior of the church was being used to house the work of several exhibitors in the 'Art Week', as shown in my photograph taken this afternoon. You will see the unexpected style of the church from this picture, although I intended it to illustrate the exhibits. When they were (much) younger, our children were pupils at the St Barnabas Primary School, associated with the church. I fear that was well over 35 years ago...