BARBARA HODGSON picks out a cultural highlight of her year
CHATTING at a brazier at dusk, fire dancing around us from the flaming torches dotted around the garden behind Durham Cathedral, was for me a stand-out memory of one of this year’s stand-out events.
Lumiere sound and light festival made a welcome return in November for four dazzling nights.
Other than massive crowds, no one knew quite what to expect and those who made it through Durham’s cramped cobbled streets were rewarded, thanks to installations by more than 30 artists, with surprises at every turn.
There was Kingsgate bridge turned into a shimmering waterfall and the sheer spectacle of the Marquess of Londonderry statue in Market Square encased in a giant souvenir-style snowdome, snowflakes swirling over his head, while Ross Ashton’s Crown of Light show turned the front of the cathedral into colourful moving canvas.
But it was within the cathedral and out the other side, that I thought stole the show.
Inside, Compagnie Carabosse, a French performance company described as fire alchemists, worked marvels with a show called Spirit.
A three-part special, set to eerie and beautiful live music, it brought a Harry Potter magic to the scene, lighting up the nave with hanging lanterns which revealed themselves on closer inspection to be vests filled with fire.
The second surprise was in the grassed quadrangle beyond the cloisters where flames lit up the night sky as they spilled out of metal buckets rotating slowly on a wheel.
Then came the mesmerising sight of the fire-filled cathedral gardens: fire swirling in braziers, mixing with water sculptures, bellowing from beacons and woven through trees while mechanical, moving scrap metal sculptures methodically went into action.
It looked medieval. Even the long-haired, long-coated members of the performance company appeared of another time, while the spiritual setting could not have been bettered.
Lumiere is all about seeing Durham in a new light and nobody who was there could deny they saw things a little differently.
As for other cultural highlights, how could I not mention the hosting of the Turner Prize at Baltic in Gateshead?
It’s been such a coup for the region and it’s been great to see those queues over the Millennium Bridge to see the exhibition.
A highlight for me was interviewing artist George Shaw, one of the shortlisted entrants at the exhibition preview which brought north national press and TV.
It should have come as no surprise that the man who captures the real world in meticulous paintings of run-down housing estates was himself down to earth but his engaging personality revealed underlying humour in those apparently bleak scenes.
Another artist made an impact earlier in the year when I paid a visit to his home in Spennymoor.
Norman Cornish, the former miner who moved on to painting the world he knew – capturing the pitmen’s world both at the coal face and with pals in the pub – was preparing for a summer exhibition of his work at Northumbria University Gallery.
He told me about his life and art, how he felt both a part of and an observer of that world, and spending a memorable afternoon in the company of the now 92-year-old – a great storyteller – and his wife Sarah was a real pleasure.