If you were a Spanish person in Barcelona who didn’t speak English and needed to ask someone for help – perhaps to find the nearest pharmacy, or the way to Diagonal, or to know if you are on the right train for Sant Celoni……..if you were this person, would you approach me for the answer?
Would you go up to a middle-aged blond blue-eyed British looking woman listening to an ipod and ask her – in castellano – for help in using the metro ticket machine?
This has been happening to me for about the past year. Almost every day someone comes up and asks me for help with directions or finding something or opening hours. Somehow and without my knowing how or why I have become a designated information person. And often strangely, I know the answer.
However in the Caixa Forum exhibition Rutes d’Arabia I was still very surprised when a woman sidled up to me while I was drawing a statue and asked ‘el texto, es en arameu?’ We had to read the answer together from the adjacent plaque but I was able to tell her ‘si, es en arameu’ and thus I learnt a new word.
These two headless figures were only discovered recently – they are massive and powerful. Twelve were found and three are in the exhibition. Each of them is sculpted out of a single piece of sandstone with such skill that it seems there was a sculpture school in this place producing masters of the art
This was my second visit to this exhibition of archaeological finds from Saudi Arabia – it is an amazing collection of pieces some of which are from 4000 years before Christ. My first visit was to get to know a little about the history of the important places and ancient trading routes that cross the land. The second visit was simply to draw what caught my eye
Here is the statue with the text in Arimeu.
I decided this visit not to try and understand all the background history which can feel overwhelming and exhausts my brain. I just let my eye guide me around the rooms and when something attracted my attention I went and tried to draw it. It has been a while since I made lines on paper and I was shocked at how wobbly they were but the act of drawing was the opposite of overwhelming and exhausting – I left the exhibition feeling renewed. In fact I had so much energy I decided to visit another exhibition in the Caixa – Humà, Massa Humà. For more on this see my next post
It is a lovely exhibit, so glad you made it back again! Funny about being asked questions all the time…..I get asked for directions, but in Catalan in the village and I always find it alarming, what with the complexities of giving directions in Catalan (d*mn subjunctives) and all the one way streets! Agh.
Kate, you irradiates confidence and knowledge. Is for this reason people ask you. They didn’t see your look, but your soul…
Pep xxxx
These are absolutely awe inspiring – even in a photo on a computer you can feel their power. When I saw some of the Dordogne cave paintings last year – I had the same wonderful goosebump reaction Thanks for posting them.
Dear Liz
So glad you felt the power of them. this exhibition was one of the few that really made my heart jump. We are so used to seeing wonderful things on TV and in galleries that sometimes it seems ordinary. But there was something about all the artefacts – perhaps because they were coming out of Saudi for the first time, or perhaps because they were so amazingly old and well preserved.
And yes, I had the same experience with the cave paintings – but a million times more. I think of the caves often and want to go back this year sometime. I don’t know where you went but my favourites are in the Lot. Cougnac. And the one with the little train that takes you underground.
love Kate x