crossing the piazza

Writing a week ago I was exploring the idea of Advent in the midst of the simple and ordinary. Yesterday, I saw this work by Alberto Giacametti in

the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Titled 'Piazza', it is a small scale work. The curator’s interpretation suggests that Giacametti's characteristic elongated figures are positioned so that their perceived pathways across the piazza would not cross. This should not ‘be taken to indicate urban alienation, but simply the nature of a public place of intersecting passage’. I wondered though if those intersections could have any lasting effect?

Reflecting on the last week or so I have ‘intersected’ or crossed paths with all sorts of people and experiences. A week of art school was always meant to be the highlight, and it lived up to expectation. I was gently challenged and encouraged by Enrico, a sculptor by training who is passionate about correct perspective and sensitive tone  drawing. Daily exercises drawing carefully placed and lit wooden blocks and fruit demanded extreme concentration, as did the careful observation and representation of various sculptures and portraits. (My earlier observation about seeing too many sculptures in the galleries rather came home to roost!). The time was far too short but I take memories (and a tiny bit of skill!) from this encounter which has become part of me. Once he was happy that he had imparted some basic principles, Enrico was happier for a little more freedom in drawing from live models. (Lots of parallels to be drawn with other aspects of life….)

Significant too, were the encounters with other students, all of whom were there for more substantial periods, gap year students in the main, but making up a community which was both transient and stable. Transient in that it constantly welcomed and bid farewell to its members, the most regular topic of conversation was around, ‘when are you leaving?’ But, oddly stable too, reflected in common purpose and a sense of continuity however often the faces changed.

I was struck by how quickly bonds can form – something which was even more starkly evident in the cookery classes I took on a couple of evenings. Here over 3 hours learning some basic skills and then eating together it was striking how lives from Ukraine, Norway and South Africa intersected, learned about one another and then continued our very different journeys. All of these were easy, ordinary encounters taking place in unusual settings. I felt I was among strangers who however briefly became good friends.

Back to Giacametti – whilst the potential encounters represented by the cast figures would be fleeting, they would not be devoid of response. Any encounter, however fleeting changes something. We give something and take something as we intersect, in meeting, sharing and parting. The figures may be on different paths but their presence together means they will in some way have an influence on one another’s course.