a trip to the guggenheim in bilbao .....

Many of my friends and blogging friends have wondered what the greatest inspiration was in my latest travels and I would have to say my visit to Bilbao's Guggenheim.  For so many, many years I have hoped I would one day get to visit this architectural icon and this year I did. The building itself is completely remarkable and I have included some of my images later in this post.  Sublime really. 

I had a couple of hours there only and most of that time was spent immersing myself in Richard Serra's 'The Matter of Time'.  I think the hour I wandered in and out of this sculpture/installation was the highlight of my trip.  Even now when I think of it I breath heavily!   For me it was like wandering through the pages of an enormous rusted book, ones I have dreamt of making and perhaps one day will - not on this scale obviously but large.  I also had the feeling that if one could carve in slices, somewhere like Kata Juta or Uluru, it would feel like walking through the insides of those sacred, mysterious places. Though finer photographs may be found on the Guggenheim official site, these are mine, I was there, I had this amazing experience ....

For those wishing to read more about the work of Richard Serra you can go to this link at Artsy which is a fabulous site and whose mission is to make all the world's art accessible to anyone.

The images above are all of Richard Serra's work showing textures and form.  The scale was impressive - about 30 metres long and a height of 3 to 4 metres.  You are enveloped as you walk through. Breathtaking.  And here below, are some of the many images I took of the actual building by  Frank Gehry.