Monday 6 March 2017

Pastel glass in Vienna and Christ in a rescue blanket

Beautiful pastel glass in St Stephan's Cathedral,Vienna. (The colours of Veronese's Repentant Magdalen). 
An art installation has taken over the space: artist Victoria Coeln has wrapped statues of saints in foil rescue blankets. All the statues high up on the pillars are wrapped - here Christ. Things are often veiled in Lent - with the promise of everything being revealed at Easter.
She says she's speaking to those seeking refuge and salvation from their misery.
The cathedral is crowded and most of it blocked off to those visiting: why?



Reading and watching

  • Foot by Foot to Santiago de Compostela/Judy Foot
  • The Testament of Mary with Fiona Shaw at the Barbican
  • The Testament of Mary/Colm Toibin
  • Schwanengesang/Schubert - Tony Spence
  • Journals/Robert Falcon Scott
  • Fugitive Pieces/Ann Michaels
  • Unless/Carol Shields
  • Faust/Royal Opera House
  • The Art of Travel/Alain de Botton
  • Mad Men Series 6
  • A Week at The Airport/Alain de Botton
  • The Railway Man/Eric Lomax
  • Bright Lights, Big City/Jay McInerney
  • Stones of Venice/John Ruskin
  • The Sea, the Sea/Iris Murdoch
  • Childe Harold/Lord Byron
  • All The Pretty Horses/Cormac McCarthy
  • Extreme Rambling/Mark Thomas
  • Story of my Life/Jay McInerney
  • Venice Observed/Mary McCarthy