ReCollection: Kettle's Yard Oral History Archive

Hello, my name is Ellie and we are in Kettle's Yard. We are upstairs near a book place and they've got a nice sculpture what I really like and it's like round and it looks like its got some bubbles in it and like a swirl, and it looks like it's got a really big bubble and it's like you can feel like emotions in your head, like you’re in a swirly place.

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Hello I'm Daisy and I'm aged 7. Hello I'm Amie and I'm aged 8. And your talking about? A lemon. It looks quite manky and it looks sort of like it's been there for quite a long time. It also looks quite nice, it looks like it could lead you to find other yellow things in this room as well because there's not many yellow things in this room. And I think Jim wanted to buy a lot of yellow things to match up with the lemon. Yellow's like a peaceful colour as well, because Kettle's Yard is quite a calm place I think yellow is quite a good colour to be in Kettle's Yard. And I think that Helen and Jim did quite like lemons.

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Hello I'm Paolo. We're somewhere upstairs by the window and there is a lot of stuff that's green, but not vegetables. OK what things can you see? Leaves, one light and some pots and a watering can. OK and why did you choose this part of the house, what do you like about it? Because I like green because it’s my favourite colour and I like leaves and stuff to do with water and it seems peaceful and makes me be relaxed and that's why I like it.

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It's a long time ago, when some fish were around and this is all a sea and there was… instead of people fishing them, we had a machine that floated along, which is this, and they were all caught in and it was a story and that is the end.

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Right now I am in Kettle's Yard looking at photos in, in a rich person's house and the photo that I like is by Brian Pearce and I like his painting because it is not surrounded and it looks a bit like, really decorated. It's not plain that much, there's not much colours, I would say the main colour is gold and it looks a bit like a palace it's quite big and it's got a little green in front of it. I think the artist painted it because he wouldn't think no-one else would like paint it or think of it so, like, he would like to show, show a painting that isn't similar to anybody else's.

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Hello my name is Iman and I'm 9 years old and I found this pot in Kettle's Yard and it's really nice, it's not too big and it's not too small and it's not got too much detail on top of it and it's got a bit chipped from the side but that's the part that I like, it's just a bit dull but I still like it. I think it might have been used like somewhere really far like Africa to be used to hold water in. The patterns aren't too wow they're like not too much to look at but they are really calm and there's stripes everywhere and they've got this little zig-zag shape on the neck of it. It's in a really weird place because there are loads of paintings everywhere and you wouldn't think it was gonna be in a corner really low so no one can see it.

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And then there's this big huge painting of like a deep dark forest and the colours are all dull and you can look at the flowers, just at the bottom and they are all dead and in the sky looks like there's a mist, looks like a forgotten world. Forgotten, no-one needs any more, no-one wants. It's like a dark forest with ancient creatures. I think the person who painted this must have had a dream or something. Mist in the sky, full moon, the burning sun and the dead flowers and in the distance there is a little animal. I'm not sure if it’s a deer, I'm going to have a closer look now. Looks like a unicorn and it looks like no-one wants to live there any more, no-one wants to explore.

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Hello I'm Texas, I'm 9 years old. I'm looking at a sculpture that is a bit weird to the other ones, it's a person sitting down and holding a flower in its hand and it's on a stand so it don't fall down. It looks like it's like praying and it’s somewhere quiet. I like it because it's like a person in it's own time, thinking. I think it's sitting on a special chair um because if you look round it you can see the back of the chair, the front of the chair, but the chair doesn't have any legs and it's on a wooden stand and its ears look weird and it's got a special thing on its head.

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Rapunzel lived there and the witch lived there because she is a very nasty witch, she gives her loads of worms and bugs and beetles. Can you look at the picture and tell me what colours are in there? They are just normal colours like we normally see at nursery and I like the objects because they make me think I'm going to paint them at home.

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