Kettle's Yard: sea-shells, lemons and pebbles.
Words that Kettle’s Yard summons in my mind:
..light (always light, and because we’re in East Anglia, always warm light), texture, balance, slowness, boldness, intent, consideration, weight and weightlessness, material, form, harmony, restraint, reflection, refraction and poise.
In 1966 Jim and Helen Ede did an extraordinary thing and gifted their house to the University of Cambridge. Kettle’s Yard is foremost a home and if a gallery at all, it is as much a gallery of the rituals of living as it is of art. Sea-shells and pebbles sit alongside paintings by Ben Nicholson and William Congdon, a Brancusi perches modestly upon a piano whilst pictures hang at eye level, hover unassumingly above the skirting boards and linger beside the loo. The way art mingles with domesticity in this way is what makes Kettle’s Yard so unique. None of the artworks are labelled, the visitor experience is unlike anything else, at times you can feel like a trespasser, snooping around someone’s home until you spot the iPhone camera lens or trainers of another visitor.
And light at Kettle’s Yard is so important. The Venetian blinds in the downstairs quarters cast high-contrast, angular shadows which sprawl over furniture or dance into a painting, reconstructing its scene.
As you manoeuvre through the house each room unfolds itself organically thanks to the exquisite eye of Ede. Between the contents of the house exists a highly sensitive network of connections and visual cues. Take for example the lime-green bordered Rockingham plates that overlook the dining table, their gloss and citrus glow mirrored by a lemon that sits on pewter plate by the door.
Kettle’s Yard is a celebration of beauty not just in art but in the art of life, the art of marriage and the art of the everyday. It is a celebration of natural forms and of transient light spells that splice surfaces. Ultimately it is a celebration of generosity, inclusivity, learning and curiosity.
Words and pictures by Lauren Emily Wilson.
