On Wednesday 20th December the walking group had a day trip to Kilmarnock. A small group of us took the bus and visited the Dick Institute. When we arrived we had a drink and a cake in the museum café which is located in the library within the Dick Institute building. After refreshments we saw “Artist Rooms” by Martin Creed featuring sculpture, neon, painting and videos. A large neon DON’T WORRY covers one corner of the room and diagonal black stripes on white paint cover one wall. There are 4 video screens featuring people vomiting. There was a trigger warning at the door to warn us about this. The main attraction is ‘Balls’ which is composed of over a thousand balls of various sizes; from several feet in diameter to little marbles. There’s a glitterball, globes, baby toys and even a stress ball shaped like a woman’s breast. An almost strange selection of work, we did spend a lot of time trying to identify all the types of balls but we mainly avoided the videos. The exhibition is on until January 6th 2024.
We also visited the permanent displays in the upstairs galleries. There are two sections, local history and the natural world. The history side has tales from local businesses and of family life in Kilmarnock through the years. The natural world features animals from around the world and artefacts from the surrounding area. We all really liked this museum and I think we may return to Kilmarnock to visit again in the future.
