I've got over half a dozen extraordinary posters here, which have been lurking in a
dark part of my collection; they haven't seen the light of day for many years,
so I want to show them to you now. Some of them are really fascinating.
Well, here's the best known of them I think; the Escher endless staircase. An extraordinary one
this - showing a lot of gnome-like creatures walking up and down the staircase endlessly,
and never getting any higher and never getting any lower. It's due to the very clever bit of art work
he's done there, to create what's supposed to be a three-dimensional picture, but completely flat.
Very well known, and repeated in so many books and articles; and it's marvellous to look at, and a
big large-scale poster of it makes it so much more look-able at. This is Escher's endless staircase.
Here's a very remarkable poster from the Nature Company of San Francisco, which came out sometime
in the early 90s. A very proactive company, and this is a wonderful one they call something like
'they walk again', and it imagines in the artist's mind what would happen if one of these gigantic
dinosaurs had walked onto a motorway somewhere in Switzerland or Germany, and because he's a
herbivore - he's not like tyrannosaurus rex - he eats plants, and he's had a little swipe of the
gardener's truck here, of his favourite dish. What extraordinary size he is, this monster,
compared with those puny little mammals, human beings, about a hundredth of the size, if that;
and this huge huge gentle monster lumbers onto the motorway. That'll be something to see,
and never forget. And here's a large poster of the world map. It's slightly unusual because it's
upside down. When I was traveling far and wide, I discovered this being sold to the tourists for
a reason that will become apparent in a moment; why should they make a poster where the writing is
the right way up, but everything else is reversed or upside down? And the answer is it came from
that far away country, well from where we live, Australia... the Australian tourist
market were selling this in their shops, and it's a delightful idea of making Australia
the centre of the world, upside down to the rest of the world, no longer tucked away in a corner,
but right in the middle of the map of the world, that's the way they want to see it.
Self-centred? Well, a bit tongue in the cheek, but that's Australians, being I think quite witty!
Here's a poster I got on clouds, produced in America; about 30 different pictures of
extraordinary cloud formations. I've seen these in books, in fact I've got a book on clouds, but
I love the idea of a big display like this where instantly our eyes can roam over the whole range
of extraordinary patterns that clouds can take on; and some information about it at the top,
and in the details, and a bit underneath. So it's a lovely thing to be able to have on the
wall and admire. I must take it out, for it's been buried away for far too long,
and put it up somewhere, so I can really enjoy looking at the clouds.
Here's something I picked up quite a few years ago; it shows a picture from perhaps 50 or 100
years ago, a picture they would have shown at Bible classes I suppose, or Sunday school,
showing the view of a fairly strict Christian upbringing, where you had to go in life through
the narrow path into salvation, rather than the big broad path, which led to wonderful
things followed by destruction! Oh dear, yes... and then biblical texts to support the views on
every part of the picture as well; so children, if they're doing their religious studies, will
be able to turn to the Bible and take up the text and see the actual words which
had inspired the artist to depict that on the picture; lots and lots for kids to be able to do,
and be quite busy with. It's quite decorative, and yes I suppose it's certainly very meaningful.
Here's a very remarkable poster I think; an optical illusion par excellence; have a look!
I'll push it forward, it's got lots and lots of
black and white, and then suddenly in the middle you get this startling pink heart; just look at
that! A little bit further... yes; isn't that extraordinary! I've seen this in small picture
books, but to see it in full poster size is much much more meaningful; it really brings it alive.
And also if you put movement to it as well - I mean I don't think you want to put it on the wall,
if you want to move it like this... make little ripples, or move sideways like this; any amount
of movement adds enormously to the appearance and the effect you get of this particular poster.
Absolutely marvellous! I've got so many of these posters now I'm not sure what to do with them;
one suggestion was to put them on my bedroom ceiling you know; because when I
was in the dentist's chair many years ago, you would see wonderful pictures on the ceiling as I was lying there;
so when I am lying bed, something like this on the ceiling would be magical, wouldn't it? So
I think I've got enough posters for every ceiling in my house now! [LAUGHS]