Kilkenny

Today we started out on the bus, just like any other field trip day. We arrived at St. Canice Cathedral, one of Ireland's biggest cathedrals, in fact it is the second largest cathedral in Ireland. The cathedral dates back to the ninth century and the tower is one of the best preserved ninth century artifacts in Ireland. The cathedral is part of the state churches in Ireland but at one point it was a catholic church based on the populations' needs at the time. Just like a lot of cathedrals anywhere, this one is also in the shape of a cross. There were may different architectural styles but mostly it was very gothic with all the arches and vaulted ceiling.

Here is a mini model of the cathedral 

Some of the pointed arches

The vaulted cieling 

We first took a tour of the cathedral and listened to the history of the town of Kilkenny and how that effected the church. Then we went outside and some of us climbed the tower. Now I didn't but some of the girls in my class did. The tower was really tall and after hearing that it's from the ninth century, it's hard to believe it's in such a great condition. There were holes in the tower but not for the artillery, it's a church so there wouldn't be any use for archers, but the holes were there to let in some light.

THE TOWER

The little entrance to the tower, and you can see here that the entrance is a gothic arch

Then we moved on to Kilkenny Castle, we didn't actually tour the castle. Instead we went to a really neat modern art exhibit. It was called Point of no Return by Magnhild Opdol. The first room was filled with vintage postcard pictures of deer and the backgrounds in each postcard was blackened so that there was an emphasis on the deer. Some of the post cards showed the valiance and strength that deer have and some showed the frailty the animal has as well. The point of a lot of what Magnhild wanted us to see the different sides to the majestic and frail surroundings that we call earth.

In the next room sat a huge pile of pink donut boxes, stacked up high and in a precise manner. The point of this room was humor. The pink boxes were supposed to represent the pink donut boxes that cops would eat in her favorite tv show. She was trying to illustrate that art doesn't always have to be so serious and that there should be some humor and whim to art. This was my favorite out of the entire exhibit.

The next room had a hand drawn still from the movie Bambi, and the first room had a bronze cast of a Bambi plastic figure, so in this room the theme of the frailty and stillness of the land that is illustrated comes back around. But in this room there was a bronze cast of a melted down candle stick and some burnt matches. So the theme for this room is there is only one point in time that something has happened and that's what she captured.

The last room contained tables of bronze casted donuts, that reminded me of the donut boxes in the second room and then there were a variety of pictures of the woods hung around the room. This again brings us back to the fact that not all art has to be serious and the donuts bring back some of the humor we found in the second room. The woman giving us the tour said that the donuts were for sale and I thought it would be a really cool souvenir but then she said they are about $250, so I said no. Bummer but overall this was a really great day!