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Front Row: The Cutty Sark as Sculpture, Regina King and an Elegy for an Eyesore

04/02/2019

The Cutty Sark as Sculpture, Regina King and an Elegy for an Eyesore

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, The Cutty Sark as Sculpture, Regina King and an Elegy for an Eyesore

The Cutty Sark, 150 this year and now floating on air, considered as a sculptural work.

Sculptor Michael Speller looks at the Cutty Sark, 150 this year, as a sculptural work. Regina King on acting in the film of James Baldwin's novel If Beale Street Could Talk.

The Cutty Sark was launched 150 years ago this year. The acme of sailing technology, now she floats not in the sea but in the air in Greenwich. People walk around on, in and under her. So the ship has become a monumental public art-work. The sculptor Michael Speller, who has made public works for Greenwich, tours the Cutty Sark with Kirsty Lang and the ship's curator, Hannah Stockton. They start beneath the keel, Michael considering the the shape and heft of the hull, then venture into the hold, where the iron ribs to which the huge planks are attached, are akin to the armature of a sculpture, and finish up on deck, where Michael is struck by the delicate filigree of the rigging and the powerful shapes described by the masts and yards.         

Regina King is sweeping up awards for her performance in If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins’ adaption of James Baldwin’s novel set in 1970s Harlem. She talks to Kirsty about police violence in America, how the awards season resembles a political campaign and why she used her Golden Globes speech to issue a challenge to the industry. 

Demolition of the former Royal Mail sorting office in Bristol began last week, as part of the regeneration of the city’s Temple Quarter district. Vanessa Kisuule is Poet-in-residence on the project and has written a poem, ‘Brick me’, to capture the history of the site which has been derelict for more than 20 years. It at once celebrates the erasure of an eyesore, and is an elegy for the loss of a familiar landmark.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Julian May

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