Knot what you expect to find

A couple of slightly random objects on my way to volunteer at the food bank today. I walked past Whitworth Park and had another look at the snake gates I posted last week. Is it wrong that I stroked them as I wanted to get a sense of how solid the bronze was and feel how intricate they were? 

I've always thought that using just one of your senses isn't enough sometimes. When we had a private tour in the cellars of John Rylands Library, I was spotted sniffing the book shelves! My name is Helen and I'm a book sniffer!

I spotted these two concrete/stone objects in the undergrowth just behind the gates. I have no idea what they are supposed to represent or what the story is but they're obviously a replica of a bundle of something - textiles from the local mill, a ship's sail, a dead body? I've googled it and can't find anything about it - yet.

I had to walk off the main path and take a few steps through the grass to take the photo. All summer, whilst the grass has been long, they've sat there unnoticed and unloved without anyone giving them a second thought. People often talk about things being hidden in plain sight and I think that's the thrill of the chase for Blippers. 

The extra photo shows the full size objects. 

EDITED: The Whitworth Art Gallery have been very helpful and given me a detailed, and somewhat dark, description of the sculptures:

The works are by Nico Vascellari and are entitled Bus de la Lum, which means 'Hole of Light' in the Veneto dialect of Northern Italy. The sculptures were part of a much larger exhibition he had at the gallery a couple of years ago, and are in response to the Bus de la Lum, which is a near vertical cave in the North of Italy. 

This cave was long associated with the supernatural, and local residents would often report seeing glowing lights above the entrance. It was common for children living nearby to be told that if they strayed into the forest at night, the witches that lived in the Bus de la Lum would kidnap them. 

Nico investigated this cave as an adult, and tried to find out if there was any reason behind its sinister reputation. In the process, he did find out that due to the nature of the cave being near vertical, woodland animals would sometimes fall into it and then, unable to escape, would die and decompose. Their rotting corpses could then release methane which might potentially explain the glowing lights that seemed to hover above the cave.

Nico also found out during his research that during WWII the cave was used by both Partisans and Nazis to throw prisoners into, often when they were alive and with their hands bound. Nico was therefore very interested in the way the Bus de la Lum had such a sinister reputation, either due to the way people had perceived it or the way they had interacted with it. 

The sculptures, which are bronze, are supposed to represent objects dropped from a great height, and one can imagine the people, with their hands bound.

Quote for today:
Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.
- Neil Armstrong