THE WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA

Report by Jill Kinnear, 2003 Churchill Fellow

To study the diverse historical influences of decoration within Spanish architecture and textile design, andto consider the relationship of contemporary outcomes to the multicultural Australian built environment

I understand that the Churchill Trust may publish this report, either in hard copy or on the Internet orboth, and consent to such publication.

I indemnify the Churchill Trust against any loss, costs or damages it may suffer arising out of any claimor proceedings made against the Trust in respect of or arising out of the publication of any reportsubmitted to the Trust and which the Trust places on a website for access over the Internet.

I also warrant that my final report is original and does not infringe the copyright of any person, orcontain anything which is, or the incorporation of which into the final report is, actionable fordefamation, a breach of any privacy law or obligation, breach of confidence, contempt of court,passing-off or contravention of any other private right or of any law.

Signed Jill Kinnear Dated 3/7/04

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To study the diverse historical influences of decoration within Spanish architecture and textile design, andto consider the relationship of contemporary outcomes to the multicultural Australian built environment

Contents________________________________________________________________

Introduction 3

Madrid 5

Toledo 8

Cordoba 12

Granada 15

Barcelona 18

Bilbao 22

Epilogue 24

Bibliography 25________________________________________________________________

Text and images: © Jill Kinnear 2004

JILL KINNEAR BA MVAartist, textile & surface designerEmail: jillkinnear@bigpond.com

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Introduction

As a textile designer and artist working within the built environment, my arts practice is founded onthe history and relevance of decoration and textile imagery within society and culture. Historically,trade, colonisation, and now globalisation, has ensured the migration and transformation of culturalexpression and imagery throughout the world. Spain’s strategic position between Europe and Africa,bordered by the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, has provided a catalyst for occupations of its land byothers and its own explorations into the New World. Such a history, peopled by Basques, Celts,Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Jews, Byzantines, Visigoths and Moors, and influenced bythe countries of its conquests, has resulted in one of the globe’s most fascinating, diverse – anddecorative - cultures. The rich religious interaction which occurred over the centuries in Spaindramatically influenced the Spanish Moderniste (the Spanish Art Nouveau) architects of the late 19th

century such as Antoni Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner and Puig i Cadafalch and continues to underpinthe unique qualities of the country’s contemporary built environment and design.

In contrast, the nature of Australia’s initial and comparatively recent colonisation by Britain wasaggravated culturally by distance, ignorance, fear of indigenous society and the struggle for survival ina seemingly unforgiving land. Development of a distinctive regional architecture that might identifyour cities has been extremely limited. In addition, the elimination of decoration within architecture by20th century Western Modernism ensured that decoration in such a context was viewed assuperfluous and superficial, therefore breaking the connection to belief systems, traditions andhistory.

Spain has a culture that values decoration as an integral part of its history and contemporary life, andrecognizes it as a major contribution to identity. Consequently, my reason for wishing to visit thecountry was to initiate a search for a greater aesthetic understanding of how decoration in atraditional and historical context might be integrated into the Australian built environment in waysthat are capable of representing Australia’s ethnic diversity. I also wished to have a greater awarenessand understanding of aspects of Islamic culture; the Moorish invasion of Spain from North Africa inthe 8th century resulted in one of the most important and ongoing cultural influences in the country.

In the West more recently many contemporary architects are recognising the fundamental need fordecorative structure in their work, incorporating it not only into the fabric of the building, but oncemore into the very meaning of the building’s existence. It was of sublime satisfaction to me, havingtravelled around Spain visiting numerous old and very beautiful Islamic buildings, to then see JeanNouvel’s stunning design for the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, completed in 1981 and comprisingan entire façade of camera lenses that are activated by the sun’s trajectory. Their repetition into agrill-like pattern and the resulting light and shade recalls the latticework of mosques. The camerashutters relate to the celestial and mathematical construction of geometric Islamic tile patterns, theirexact divisions pointing to the infinite source, and their movements coinciding with those of theheavens.

Throughout mytravels I kept adiary, excerpts ofwhich are includedin this report. I readMark Williams’‘TheStory of Spain’ inthe evenings – I

believe it is essential to have some understanding ofSpanish history to make sense of the country’senvironment and landscape. Lonely Planet was also a

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Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris

useful guide. I walked every city; I became more familiar with its textures, sights and smells, and itgave me a more acute understanding of its layout (though Toledo, the Muslim labyrinth, the smallestof all the cities, was beyond me, and my maps.) This report mentions most of the major places thatwere of interest to me in each city, but there were many more galleries and venues that I popped intowhile passing. It should be noted that, in Europe, winter might be the time for the restoration orrepair of buildings, for occasionally a venue was closed for such an occurrence.

This, then, is a journey of Spanish cities – Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba, Granada, Barcelona and Bilbao.While preparing for my trip, I gave considerable thought to the order in which I should visit thesecities, and I now believe that my itinerary was a good one in relation to my goals. I visited Madrid firstprimarily because the dates of the contemporary art fair dictated that I should be there by February11th. As Madrid is central and Granada and Barcelona are of equal distance from it, I then had a choiceas to which way round I might move through the country. Leaving Barcelona to the end allowed meto first absorb the history of the country, in particular the Moorish invasion, through Toledo, Córdobaand Granada. This in turn helped me to understand how Gaudí and the Moderniste architects, whoseworks are on show throughout Barcelona, were influenced by past traditions.

I wish to sincerely thank the Churchill Trust for making this wonderful journey possible, and for theirsupport, through Meg Martin, during the trip. The invaluable insights and information I gathered willcontribute enormously to my practice, and consequently to the Australian community and culture.Many thanks to Nadine of Qantas for absolutely unflappable professionalism and efficiency. Thankyou too to my referees, Ann-Maree Reaney, Keith Ward and John Stafford, who put in such a goodword for me.

Finally, I wish to thank the people of Spain, whose outstanding kindness, patience, hospitality andhumour made every day a delight. Their pride and knowledge of their culture and theprofessionalism with which they conveyed information ensured that my understanding wascomprehensive and detailed. From the bottom of my heart, gracias!

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Madrid

Flying through vapour trails to Spain, the Pyrenees far below, white, serrated edges, knife sharp. I look forpasses through the mountains; passages of history.

Spain is instantly dirt brown, red, with drying rivers winding through cracked ravines. Mottled plains polkadotted with olive and almond trees, patch-worked fragments punctuated by strange and sudden outcropsof rock…

Diary, en route to Madrid, 11/2/04

I have arrived in Madrid, but my luggage hasnot…

Diary, Madrid, 11/2/04_________________________________

Eventually, my luggage and I werereunited and I went out my first evening tothe opening of the 23rd International ArtFair of Madrid, known as ARCO. It was heldin the Juan Carlos Trade Fair Ground, anextensive exhibition area which containedover 250 galleries, some 100 of which were Spanish. The galleries represent contemporary, modernand historic avant-garde artwork in various disciplines including painting, drawing, sculpture, newtechnology, installation, photography and video. The immense assembly of this work from all over theworld is a fantastic opportunity to see what is going on throughout the globe, and to view workwhich is not normally accessible in Australia. There are also exceptional professional networkingopportunities for artists, especially as an exhibitor, but also just as a visitor.

I was particularly interested in the works of Jesús Soto, a South American born artist who usesgeometrics to create kinetic images and optical movement.

This year, in conjunction with ARCO, there was a public art programme called Madrid Abierto. Thework was placed at ten sites throughout the city. Four of these works were chosen through aninternational competition. I was eager to see these temporal site-specific art works, especially theproposal for the large water tank in Plaza de Castilla by Charles Blanc and Tristan Surtees. On viewingI believed this to be the least successful, but other pieces such as the appropriation of a mythic imagefrom Alfred Hitchcock's ‘The Birds’ by Diana Larrea on the façade of the Casa de America and ‘Silent’, aplexiglass acoustic sculpture by Elena Bajo, on a section of the Paseo de la Castellana made up for thedisappointment.

Over the next two days I visited two of Madrid’s most important galleries - the Thyssen-Bornemiszaand the Reina Sofia where I was first introduced to Antoni Tàpies’ work and viewed Picasso’s ‘Guernica’.Unbeknown to me at the time, I was to later see Antoni Tàpies’ work in such profound circumstancesthat he has become in my mind synonymous with the human condition. While galleries bring thework to the viewer in the easiest, but most isolated of environments, it is the human condition and itscollective effect in the world that gives reason to these images. Our own personal experiencesproject further meaning onto the work.

On the Saturday I walked the old city, guided by Lonely Planet’s tour to points of interest. I passedthrough the Puerta del Sol, the official centre of Madrid, on to 17th century Plaza Mayor, a large,beautiful and very theatrical square of balconies, shuttered windows and walls of allegorical

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Plaza Mayor, Madrid

paintings. At the old ayuntamiento or townhall I noted for the first time the use ofdecorative tiles on the underside ofbalconies. Decorative ceramic tiles in Spaindate all the way back to Moorisharchitecture, and ceramic production withinthe country became extremely important.Throughout my travels I noted all the ways inwhich decorative tiles were usedtraditionally - for the risers in steps, on walls,window sills, balconies, roofs, street namesand numbers, shop signs, etc. Gaudí andother Moderniste architects exploited theiruse to the fullest extent, producing newshapes, forms and imagery, and smashingthem to create mosaics with effects from fine subtle eggshell to riotsof colour and texture. The Islamic tiles, perhaps shown to best effectat the Alhambra in Granada, make specific reference to profoundreligious belief.

In Madrid I also noted the ironwork grilles of entranceways and windows, and became aware of setsof huge old double doors decorated with large metal studs and metal doorknockers featuring hands,beast-like heads and animals such as lizards. The Archaeological museum showed metalwork grillesdating back to Romanesque times, and the stunning metal fretwork of Muslim lamps from oldmosques. Streets are lined with decorative ironwork balconies, almost touching each other overnarrow lanes, and echoing the painted decoration of walls and window frames. The ironwork is madefrom substantial sections of metal, in keeping with the scale of the buildings it adorns, and lending apowerful and purposeful look to the facades. Again Gaudí, whose grandfathers and father werecoppersmiths, reintroduced the craft of wrought iron in his projects, using natural icons such asflowers, vines, spirals and animals, as I would see in Barcelona, with spectacular results.

Madrid was, for me, a place of introduction. While the city pales in aesthetic terms to those I was stillto visit, it provided vast amounts of information in fascinating formats. In addition to the galleriesalready mentioned, I visited the Prado and the Goyas therein, the National Archaeological Museumwhere I also documented Roman mosaic floors, the Museum of Decorative Arts, which reconstructsSpanish domestic interiors from the 15th to 20th centuries, and The Royal Tapestry Factory, a workingenvironment which has not changed since 1721. This last visit I found particularly entrancing, as theoriginal looms and equipment are still in operation, responding to world-wide commissions toconstruct and repair tapestries and carpets that were historically designed to decorate the palaces ofthe Spanish Monarchy. Hanks of hand coloured wool pour from shelves, worn wooden loom steps,recording over 280 years of weavers’ efforts, are stacked against the stone wall of the workshop, andthe present weavers’ clothes are the only clue to the 21st century. The factory holds original designsfrom many artists of the 18th century Royal Court, including Goya who contributed 53 cartoons, mostof which are in the Prado Museum.

Just behind the Prado at the Palacio de Velázquez in Parque del Retiro there was a wonderfulexhibition by German photographer Axel Hütte. His large-scale landscapes give a sense of theinfinite, of mystery, of peace and unease. A series taken of a figure reflected in an almost still pooladded to this feeling – turned so the figure was the right way up, slightly blurred but still detailed, as ifsome small shift had occurred which was beyond one’s control. This exhibition was perfectly matchedwith a nearby installation by Norwegian artist Per Barclay which occupied the Crystal Palace, a grandglass house filled with cool light and bird song. Barclay added the sound of water, rhythmicallydripping from a high point to glass water tanks below, but suddenly breaking the calmness with a

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Parc Güell tiles,Barcelona, Gaudí

loud, violent prolonged cascade pumped from surface planesto a myriad of transparent tubes snaking over the floor. Thetransparency, rhythm and reflective qualities of the materialsworked perfectly with the environment, creating a sense ofpeace and beauty, but also of unease.

Outside, in the wintry park, a high fountain tossed in the air,crashing into the surrounding lake. As I travelled south, waterwould reappear time and time again, in the rills between theorange trees of the Córdoba Mosque, in garden pools andsteps, in the empty alcoves of the Alhambra where water jugsonce stood, in tiny jets and marble basins, in streams beneathbridges, in brown silted rivers lined with ancient Arab waterwheels, in the blue Mediterranean. And even at the end ofmy journey, climbing high in the Pyrenees, in the rushing ofmelted snow back to the sea.

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Toledo

Toledo is a tiny medieval city sitting atop a steep rocky outcrop perforated by caves, and surrounded farbeneath by the turbulent River Tagus. A labyrinth above and below, a warren of high narrow windingstreets of stone and mudejar brick, filled with lost tourists clutching maps. I am one; I walked all day andconstantly got lost; buying a map does not resolve the issue. It’s impossible to see where you’re going,though an occasional glimpse of the 13th century cathedral tower within the narrow strip of sky overheadcan help. The cobbles are smooth and polished, dampened by the February mist. The beating of pigeonwings overhead as I pass ancient worn wooden doors studded with iron circles and stars and hung withgreat handles.

It is said that the Visigoth monarch, King Roderick, opened an enchanted house in Toledo that had alwaysbeen locked: each previous king had added his own lock to ensure the security of the house. But instead ofdoing the same, Roderick arrogantly chose to open the house, expecting to find it full of treasure. Insteadhe found a drawing of Arabs and a sign that said ‘When this door is opened these people will enter thecountry.’

Diary, Toledo, 18/2/04__________________________________________

Doors hold great significance in Toledo. They appear thekeepers of secrets, including the beautiful gardens and patiosthat the stranger knows lie behind the facades. But the doorsrarely open, and the tourist is relegated to wandering thestreet. Keys are also a symbol of the city, not to open doors, butto close them. When the Jews were expelled in 1492 manylocked their doorways and kept the key, thinking they wouldeventually return. The keys were passed down throughgenerations, people hoping to reclaim their property. Some ofthese keys, huge and heavy, are on display in the CulturalCentre. One could only imagine the doors they would unlock.

Toledo developed first as an area of caves which providedshelter for travellers and refuge during times of intolerance.Because of its defensive advantage it became a city, thebuildings constructed ontop of the caves whichthen served as storagefor water and hideoutsfor refugees. Despiteefforts by the Romans

and Arabs, water continued to be brought up from the river bydonkey until the 19th century. Because of its limited site, the cityremained the same size until the 20th century when the new cityspread out on the plain below. The old city, occupied byRomans, Jews, Visigoths, Arabs and Christians, was constantlydismantled and reconstructed, a continuous recycling ofbuilding materials – stone, mudejar brick - taking place. It ispossible to find walls composed of both stone and brick, withlost inscriptions indiscriminately placed; a layering whichreflects its various historical influences and inhabitants.

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Doorway, Toledo

Toledo

Toledo was subsequently a Roman, Visigoth, Muslim and Christian capital, a place of religious andpolitical power. Under the Visigoths and then the Muslims it became known as a city of learningwhich established the School of Translators. Toledo was the scene of endless feuding amongst theVisigothic nobles that eroded the strength of their State. Consequently, when the Muslims crossedthe Strait of Gibraltar in 711 they were easily able to capture Toledo on their march north. Mostimportantly, however, Toledo was a place where three religions – Judaism, Islam and Christianity, andthose who converted from one to the other, co-existed in comparative harmony for a period of timearound the 11th to 15th centuries. Before the Jews were expelled there were ten synagogues in Toledo.Of the two which have survived, Santa María La Blanca hosted services for Muslims on Fridays, Jewson Saturdays and Christians on Sundays. And when the 14th century Sinagoga del Tránsito wasconverted to a Christian Church, the only alteration visible in its perfectly original structure is a smallarchway installed to house a statue of the Virgin Mary.__________________________________________

Country Queenslanders would go mad here, yet the Berbers and the Moors were also desert people.Strange to occupy two environments whichare the antithesis of each other. I’m sure Icould find my way out of the Simpson Desertwith greater ease than I can out of Toledo.

And so it is with the decoration here – thetiles are intricately patterned with Arablatticework – lines twist and turn and crosspaths forming central octagonals, stars,squares and diamonds. The tiles areeverywhere, interior and exterior, on top andunderneath balconies, in floors, doors andplaques. Everything, from the caves andtunnels, the intricate Mudejar arches, theundulating plain of woven streets, thepatterned tiles and wooden ceilings, the greatstudded doors and staccato language confuses and closes one out. Yet they also draw one in. If ever therewas a place where decoration holds relevance and fascination, Toledo must be it. And yet, I understand solittle of it.

For the moment, I have resigned myself to getting lost. I know now that there is no such thing as a directroute in Toledo, and my own trails at present must resemble tile patterns, forever turning back and crossingover themselves…

Diary, Toledo, 21/2/04__________________________________________

The Cultural Centre was my first stop, and it was here that the history of Toledo was laid out withempathy for its rich and diverse history. It is a valuable and extensive exhibition, descriptionsgraphically illustrated by the descent of rooms into the cave-like bowels of the basement. Museo deSanta Cruz, once a 16th century hospital, contained a huge ceramic exhibition, explaining in Spanishthe development of techniques in Spain and Portugal through imported traditions, trading andimmigration. The cloisters were filled with stone fragments with Roman, Hebrew and Arabicinscriptions. Cylindrical structures I finally worked out to be Arabic wells. As I struggled withlanguage and the wealth of information, pieces began to fit together, forming a picture of the past.

In the layering of the city the site of Toledo Cathedral was once the Visigoths basilica, which thenmade way for the central mosque, which in turn was destroyed to accommodate the massive

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Detail of doorway, Toledo

cathedral. The ceilings in the cathedral are in some places 45 metres high, and visiting on a quietSunday morning while the organ was playing was a memorable experience. The carved High Altar isbreathtaking, tall and gilded, with finely detailed scenes from Christ’s life comprising a veritable wallof the richest decoration. I saw my first Caravaggio in the Sacristy, hanging in a very casual fashionamong a cache of other paintings by Rubens, Van Dycke, El Greco, Velázquez, Titian and Rafael. A side

gallery was packed with a stunning collection of vestments dating back to the 15th century;embroidered silks and velvets encrusted with gold threads and beads, jewels and pearls.

I was constantly amazed that so much had survived such a traumatic history - to remain intactthroughout centuries of dramatic changes in religion and society, only to become undone at thehands of Napoleon’s troops who were solely responsible for some of the deliberate destruction thatdid occur. It is obvious, however, that the Spanish authorities have a very active programme ofmaintenance and conservation (some venues were closed for such procedures). The authorities alsoseem to choose (partly, I presume, from a lack of space) a healthy balance between the old and thenew, electing not to place everything on a pedestal, but to keep it operative in the most aesthetic andpractical sense. They seem to hire clever architects to convert buildings, which still retain a profoundsense of history, or to build extremely contemporary buildings that merge perfectly with the old – theCultural Centre, Centro Cultural de San Marcos, in Toledo is an example of this. Also, easing the climbto the old city from the new, and presumably easing the congestion of commuter cars which mightsqueeze down the narrow streets, is a series of pedestrian escalators, hidden beneath canopies ofgrass, which ascend the north-facing cliff.

I conducted visits to Iglesia de Santa Tomé and to Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz, the city’s onlyremaining mosque which was built around AD 1000. It is surrounded by a little garden throughwhich runs a tiny rill to a small fountain. The central ceiling of the mosque is covered in Christianfrescoes as the mosque was turned into a church. Outside the main body of the mosque an archedand pillared area has 9 ceilings of stucco design, each ceiling has a different pattern of squares,diamonds and octagonals. In the pillars below, curved bricks contribute to the horseshoe arches.

The Catholic Monarchs Isabel and Fernando began the MonasterioSan Juan de los Reyes in 1477. A large orange tree fills the cloisters,which are surveyed from above by stone gargoyles and fierce hawks,a royal symbol. A beautiful wooden Mudejar ceiling, inspired byintricate Arab latticework and punctuated with the monarchs’ initials,is a graphic example of how influences merged. In the ground floorchurch the hawks again appeared in two walls of elaborate stonecarving depicting the monarch’s coat of arms and lines of animalspeering over a ledge to meet my upturned gaze. The entire building,built in the Jewish quarter of Toledo, demonstrates the power of theCatholic Church in medieval Spain. I was particularly fascinated bythe chains of Christian prisoners, liberated in Granada, hanging fromthe north wall.

The 1920s railway station, which proved rather redundant during mytrip as the tracks were mere heaps of rubble, was still worth a visit toview the splendour of the spacious Mudejar Revival interior – every

wall sporting three or four different tile designs. I took photographs ofthe tiles, but the designs seemed to be a code for something that I did

not yet understand. As a textile designer I know that decoration is often treated superficially in oursociety because it’s relevance and meaning is not considered. To me, there had to be something morebehind these designs. In Granada, I would find out.

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Coffered ceiling, San Juan de losReyes, Toledo

Before I left Toledo, one night there was a fancy dress carnival…__________________________________________

The first thing I saw on leaving the hostal was a bull and a matador pushing a shopping trolley up a steepisolated street. Further on, in the crowds of the Calle de Comercio, I came across a group dressed as touristsin T-shirts, shorts, hats, sunglasses and cameras slung around their necks. But it was their exaggeratedbemusement and anxious perusal of the maps of Toledo that they gripped so fervently in their hands thatmade me laugh out loud. Recognition.

Diary, Toledo, 21/2/04

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Córdoba

Córdoba is a city of almond blossom and orange trees, the colour of the fruit illuminated by the rain.I came here by fast train this morning and now my luggage is

ensconced in a tiny room in a rambling Arab-looking house. Theroom is 17E a night including breakfast which is incredibly goodvalue, especially as the hostal has the most beautiful green andwelcoming patio, and the hallways are filled with armchairs,decorative tiling and gas heaters flickering in the dull Februarygloom. My room overlooks another small cobbled patio and thewindow frame is filled with an orange tree, dark leaves againstwhite walls, mossy roof tiles and a grey sky of low scudding clouds.Below, smashed oranges on the cobbles amongst the puddles.

The country around Córdoba seems beautiful, especially incomparison to that interminable treeless polluted plain aroundMadrid. Around Córdoba there are mountains, great outcrops ofgranite, then low stony undulating hills covered in oak trees andbright green grass.

Diary, Córdoba, 24/2/04

__________________________________________

It is the patio of orange trees that first greets the visitor to Córdoba’s Mezquita, the Great Mosque.Lined between rows of mossy patterned cobbles and rills of water, the orange trees slope gently tothe latticed entrance. The original section of the mosque was built between 785 and 787 by Abd al-Rahman 1, who came to Spain in 755 and conquered Córdoba in 756. Although the original mosquewas built over the old Christian basilica of San Vincente, and some of the recycled pillars from thebasilica can be found in the present day Mosque, Abd al-Rahman did actually purchase land from theChristians for his building. The Mosque at this stage was designed to hold 5000 worshippers, and wasconsidered even then to be the largest in the Western world. Building was continued by his son,Hisham. Successive Muslim leaders extended the Mosque until around 1,000 AD it was able to hold40,000 worshippers. The final lateral extensions resulted in the Mihrab, the focus and direction of

prayer (in this case south, like the Damascus Mosque), no longerbeing centred with the aisles.

Unbelievably, in the 16th century a cathedral was built in thecentre of the mosque, to certain resistance from the community.While the Mosque had undergone minor alterations when it wasconsecrated as a Christian Church in 1236, the construction of anentire cathedral seems a breathtaking and symbolic destructionof a stunning building; one of my guides reported that evenCarlos 1 was reputed to have voiced his disgust with churchauthorities. And coming across the cathedral, with its great highceiling and choir stalls in the midst of the mosque, has to be oneof the most bizarre experiences of my trip. Nevertheless, becauseof the vastness of the mosque, there is still enough of ituntouched to appreciate its original context, and the experiencedoes allow one to compare and contrast the symbols and imagesof different spiritual beliefs. The areas of meeting, however,where horseshoe arches collide with Renaissance or Baroque arestrange uneasy places. Unlike other buildings in Spain, wherethe different cultures are comfortably and unconsciously

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Córdoba Cathedral

represented in the design, or have accommodated worshippers of differing beliefs, in this instancethey are forcibly and almost violently confronted with each other. Even after hundreds of years, theinsensitivity of it still shocks.

There was so much to look at in the Mezquita that I went twice to visit, drawn back always to the finegold and mosaic Byzantine arabesques of the Mihrab, and the beautiful mosaic dome above. Thepillars and striped double arches are fascinating; one can find the name of the carvers etched into thecoloured granite, jasper and marble columns.

Across the Roman bridge at the Torre de laCalahorra there is a display, more aimed attourists than museum enthusiasts, butinteresting nonetheless. It focuses on theintellectual achievements of IslamicCórdoba from the time of Abd al Rahmanto when, in 1236, Fernando 111 claimedpower. While accounts of cultural co-existence in the Iberian Peninsula differ, itdoes seem that relative tolerance did existin Córdoba with the Talmud and the Korantranslated into Latin and Christians, Jews

and Muslims taught together. There was anemphasis on philosophy, science and

engineering. Across the River Guadalquivir were several huge water wheels and paper mills – one bythe north embankment has been restored. The paper the Muslims produced from ground pieces ofcloth facilitated their quest for learning on a grand scale. And in the topmost room of the CalahorraTower is a large model of the Mosque showing how it would have looked before the cathedral madeits entrance, seemingly dumped into its midst by some Star Trek transportation system.

The river holds other joys – a new bridge, the Puente de Miraflores, by well-known Spanish architectSantiago Calatrava, parallels the old romanbridge and plays on its north-southposition. Constructed with rusty-colouredCore 10 steel, it blends beautifully with thesilty yellow river. Words, ‘noches’, ‘tardes’,‘amaneceres’ and ‘mediodias’, carved lightlyinto the inner paving, relate to time, andthe sun rising and setting at right angles tothe bridge. It is the simplest but mostbeautiful of shapes, borrowing and emphasizing the form of the Roman supports for it’s one centralcolumn.__________________________________________

My relationship with my orange tree continued today: returning from a trip to the nearest known fruit shoponly to find it closed, I entered my room with the intention of stealing from the tree. The distance from thegrille to the closest orange was greater than I’d thought, so I selected one of the wire coat hanger’snumerous functions and fashioned an orange puller. It did indeed pull the orange, but I had misjudged itsstate of ripeness; it disconnected with the first touch and plummeted to the cobbles below, landing with aloud heavy thump.

Diary, Córdoba, 27/2/04

__________________________________________

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Córdoba

Puente de Miraflores, Santiago Calatrava

In contrast to Toledo’s closed doors, Córdoba’s entrances were open, and I had the chance to peerthrough wrought iron grilles to the rain-soaked patios beyond. There were other modern wovenmetal grilles that I found in the new city, and I went back to my room and cut the shapes out of paperso I could understand their construction. I visited the tiny synagogue in the Jewish quarter, and thebull-fighting museum, where I took photographs of the beautifully embellished (and blood stained)matador costumes. I wandered the gardens of the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, filled with waterterraces, stepped rills and fountains, palms and the ubiquitous luminous orange trees.

I visited the Archaeological Museum – ithad numerous Roman mosaics, composedof tessellated marble and semi-preciousstones, but the pieces I loved were twofloors, also Roman, the deceptively simpledesigns constructed in larger pieces ofstrongly coloured marble. The Museumdoes not allow photographs, but since myvisit and request to their CulturalDepartment, they have very kindly sent medigital images of both floors. The Museumalso showed an extensive exhibition aboutthe Visigothic era, illustrated with liturgicalitems, stone carving, coins and most

notably, the most beautiful asymmetricalcrosses, embossed and inlaid with pearls andsemi-precious stones.

Lonely Planet warned me of entrance queues at my next destination – the Alhambra in Granada. Andso I went to the BBVA Bank, and bought my tickets in advance, four tickets for four visits. After comingall this way, one visit would not be enough.

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Matador costume, Museo Taurino

Granada

The Alhambra in the late afternoon Marchsun. White bare birch trees against a cobaltsky, the snow-covered Sierra Nevada extendsbeyond the long low wall of the Jardin de losAdarves. Tiny birds flit from tree to tree,squirrels dangle perilously from branches,goldfish hover in reflections, roses bloomunexpectedly. It is silent and still, the wholeworld has become a garden. Cypresspunctuate the views; calculation does seem,as the Moors believed, beyond the sensibleworld. It is one of those moments when thetiniest detail is of the same clarity as thebright light of those mountains, whenmultiplicity becomes unity, when it is possibleto reverse the dimensions of space back to oneshining point that is indivisible.

If I do not yet fully understand the messages within the tiles I do understand this, and I think it is the samemessage.

Diary, Granada, 2/3/04__________________________________________

There are clues to the ornament of the Alhambra long before oneenters the gates. At different times of the day I would climb thesteep hill from my hostal on Cuesta de Gomérez to the mainportal in the great sandstone walls. Down the edges of the path,past carved seats and thick undergrowth, ran narrow rills of water.As one came closer to the fortress, waterfalls seeped from thefoundations, trickling through the mouths of carved beasts andcascading down mossy steps. Inside the compound the waterreappeared as the shining surface of geometrical forms,surrounded by marble floors, connecting channels and bubblingfountains. The sound of water was everywhere, accompanyingone’s journey through a series of spectacular rooms.

The Alhambra Museum, housed in the basement of Carlos V’spalace within the complex, explains the history of the buildings,through artifacts donated, acquired and excavated from theAlhambra itself and surrounding Granada. These objects includecoins, two beautiful calligraphic Korans, architectural and ceramicelements, bronzes, domestic objects, furniture and even part of anextraordinary carpet that has survived from the Nasrid era.Through the displays the Museum charts the course of historythat forms the Alhambra as we see it today.

In Arabic, al-Hamra means ‘red castle’. From the beginning of the 8th century, the Alhambra wentthrough different stages of development which related to the politics of the Muslim presence in theIberian Peninsula. Initially, Al-Andalus, the Muslim state, was dependent on the Caliphate of Damascusuntil the foundations of an independent state were laid by Abd al-Rahman 1 (755 - 822).

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Top: Sierra Nevada from the Jardin de los Adarves,Below: The Alhambra

The Lion Court, Alhambra

Abd al-Rahman 111 (891 – 916) installed a Caliphate with its capital in Córdoba, and this was thebeginning of a high period of Hispano-Muslim art, science and culture. From the 10th – 14th centuries,the dynasty of the Nasrid kings extended and elaborated the buildings of the Alhambra, re-creatingtheir concept of paradise on earth through architecture. But the increasing threat to their power bythe Reconquest led by the Catholic Monarchs, eventually brought their downfall in 1492.

The centerpiece of the complex is the Palacio Nazaríes. Theplainness and austerity of the exterior belies the exquisite stuccowalls and fine ceramics of the elaborate rooms. The 13th – 15th

century tiled walls are extraordinary mosaics of pieces, first glazed indifferent colours, then cut into shapes and adjusted carefully with apumice stone. The colours or glazes seem quite different from thoseemployed today – they have a lustre or luminosity, perhaps atransparency that lends them light. The shapes are cleverlyinterlocking, requiring absolute precision, and they are frequentlyfitted around curved columns, adding further challenges for thecraftsman. In short, the technicalities of the tile work areastounding.

But similar standards of skills are employed for the beautiful inlaiddoors, in similar patterns and held together without nails. Thestucco walls and ceilings are of the most intricate and detailed work,blending relief calligraphic inscriptions with vegetal and floralimagery. These walls would have been painted in bright colours,but over time they have faded back to the colour of the plaster,though in places one could still see the remnants of bright bluesand reds. Even the wooden eaves have been carved and decorated.The entire effect is one of absolute sumptuousness, but also ofgeometric balance and symmetry. It is no wonder that Boabdil, thelast sultan of the Nasrid dynasty, is reputed to have looked back andwept for his lost kingdom.

Finally, in the Alhambra bookshop I found a publication, ‘IslamicPatterns: An Analytical and Cosmological Approach’ by Keith Critchlow,which explains in great detail the faith, philosophy and constructionof the tile images. It requires a deep understanding of Islam, which Idon’t have, but I can understand the basic beliefs and how they aretranslated. In introducing the text, Seyyed Hossein Nasr writes‘…Islamic art is gradually coming to be understood for what it is,namely a means of relating multiplicity to Unity by means ofmathematical forms which are seen, not as mental abstractions, butas reflections of the celestial archetypes within both the cosmosand the minds and souls of men’ (1976, p 6). Critchlow acknowledgesthe discoveries of Western science in the use of physics to confirm theessential mathematical patterns within nature. However, he says, the significance of Islam is that ‘…inthe effort to trace origins in creation, the direction is not backwards, but inwards’ (1976, p 8).

As a textile designer, I have always been aware that my process is somehow governed by themathematics of an ordered universe. Not being a mathematician, it is something I sense rather thanemploy, but sensing it makes me feel connected to the world, and in awe of it. Consequently, I believeI am able to give my work meaning; there are even occasions when somehow I manage to touchsome fundamental truth and the work shines as a result. It becomes a belief; I think this is why artistsare so passionate about their work. This book, which I am still reading, is the nearest I have come to

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Alhambra tile details

finding an explanation for what I do and what I feel. And the day in the Jardin de los Adarves, the dayof the diary entry, confirmed it for me.

So the Alhambra will always remain special to me; it was a confirmation; perhaps that is why I was sohappy there.

__________________________________________

I am reluctant to say goodbye, so I visit again, this time at night; anindigo night brushed by the waving cypresses, and filled with starsand a misshapen moon. The building is bound to the elements; thesound of water is everywhere. Water and sky, each framed byshining rectangles, dancing with light.

Diary, Granada, 3/3/04__________________________________________

The Generalife Gardens are also beautiful, even in winter. Againone is aware of geometry and symmetry, precision and detail.As in the Alhambra, the imaginative and skillful use of simplematerials provides magical effects; the shadows thrown byhedging onto patterned cobbles result in the growth of a

verdant green moss; as in Jean Nouvel’s building mentioned in the introduction, another connectionto celestial movement.

I walked the Albaicín, the old Islamic quarter of Granada. The 11th century baths were unfortunatelyclosed. Isabel and Fernando seem to have made a point of building impressive structures in Granadato emphasise the demise of the last stronghold of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula. Theycommissioned the Cathedral and also the adjacent Royal Chapel, which is their mausoleum. Theirunassuming lead coffins can be seen in the crypt beneath their reclining, and very regal, marbleeffigies on the floor above. The grille enclosing this area, which includes the altar, is a stunning pieceof metalwork by Bartolomé de Jaén. The sacristy contains Isabel’s art collection, which gives evengreater insight into the strength of her Catholic belief. Also inthe sacristy are Isabel’s funeral garments and richlyembroidered altar cloths.

The Cathedral is a cavernous building which was begun in 1521but not completed until the 18th century. Alonso Cano, a 17th

century artist, not only designed the west front, but alsocontributed a series of large beautiful paintings depicting theAscension. These are displayed in sequence as one movesround the building. Again the treasury lived up to its name intextile terms – embroidered vestments, dark rich red velvets andthe metal of the sceptres almost indistinguishable from theornate metallic fibre of embellished cloth.

The building of medieval cathedrals took centuries, and thevarious styles of the ages appear in their construction. Faith wasongoing, and so too were the monuments to it. Building achurch or cathedral over a period of three centuries is unheardof now, yet Barcelona is witness to such a project. Begun in1890, and still only half built, Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Famíliaspans technologies, styles and materials as it creeps towardscompletion.

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Sagrada Família

BarcelonaAnother city, another sublime monument tofaith – Sagrada Família. Gigantic columnslike great trees reaching up to the heavensand branching into gold mosaics glitteringbetween circles of light. Organic symmetry.

Unlike the mosques where everything seemsdirected on a horizontal plane, Christiancathedrals and churches make you look up,and Sagrada Família made me climb, thoughI hesitated at the bottom of the narrow stonespiral stair that led up through the slenderbell towers. It was, as Lonely Planet,described it, a vertiginous experience; I simplydidn’t have the courage to step out onto thetiny stone fretwork balconies, and walking over the bridges high up between the towers made me cling tothe parapets. Having looked up and journeyed to the heavens, I then spent most of the time trying not tolook down. However there were stunning glimpses of spires, gargoyles and mosaic fruits. Asked why hespent so much time decorating spires that could not be seen clearly from the ground, Gaudí replied ‘Theangels will see them.’

Diary, Barcelona, 7/3/04__________________________________________

Gaudí’s masterpiece is one of the maindraw cards for tourists to Barcelona, so itwas not unusual for me to run out to see iton my first morning in the city. It is aculmination of a lifetime’s work and fromthe moment of viewing it, I had, in a sense,to try and work backwards to retrace hisinfluences through other buildings. Thereis a huge amount of information aboutGaudí in Barcelona. Two of the most usefulexhibitions I found were, firstly, themuseum beneath Sagrada Família whichexplains the processes of thought behindthe design of the building and thedevelopment of its construction, andsecondly, the exhibition in the attic of Casa

Milà (La Pedrera) which looks at Gaudí’s life in the context of the era, his inspiration, his buildings andhis beliefs. Gaudí remained very reclusive throughout his life, so it is possibly only through hisbuildings that we can know the architect and the man. Few of his drawings and original modelsremain as the studio at Sagrada Família which housed these items was destroyed by fire during theSpanish Civil War.

Included in the second exhibition’s display was an audiovisual presentation. This conjured images ofthe intense political and social upheaval which occurred throughout Gaudí’s lifetime from 1852 to1926 - industrial revolution, colonial wars, the introduction of new materials such as reinforcedconcrete, new urban development. While much of this focused on change and innovation which actsas a catalyst for new architectural ideas, Gaudí’s work still seemed extraordinary for its time. Juan-Eduardo Cirlot, in an essay on Gaudí, talks of his preference of the helicoid and parabola to the

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Sagrada Famí lia

Barcelona

classical circle, triangle and square, and the resulting ‘tearing apart of a tradition, resulting in mutationand the origin of a new world for mankind’ (Cirlot, Vivas and Pla, 2001, p 19).

I did not visit his buildings in the chronological order in which they were built, and in the end it madeno difference; each one was there to be discovered and enjoyed, and each Gaudí enthusiast seems tohave their favourite. Palau Güell, for his patron Eusebi Güell, andthe only house that Gaudí completed in its entirety and notsubjected to major alterations at a later date, is one of mine.

Palau Güell is situated in Carrer Nou de la Rambla, in the Raval,an old area of the city. It was to be Eusebi Güell’s family home, apalace built from the demolition of several houses in thenarrow street. Here it is possible to see the formation of ideasthat took permanent root in later works. The Islamic influencesare also very strong. The house is filled with astounding andbeautiful elements, but dark with black marble from Güell’squarry. Gaudí struggled to bring light to the dark interior; hewas later to remark that ‘architecture is the organisation of light’.Wood, marble and heavy ironwork predominates, lightened bymarquetry and finely detailed inlays of ivory. The hardwood-coffered ceilings are studded with floral decorations of wroughtiron. Güell wanted only the best materials, the finestcraftsmanship and the most unique but effective designsolution.__________________________________________

The Islamic influences are everywhere, in the domed ceiling which uses tiny portholes of light to give theeffect of a cosmos, in the interior lattices which overlook the main hall, in the tiling and the upholstery.Many of these elements feature prominently in the Alhambra. This building seems an important link in thehistorical chain of Spanish architecture.

Diary, Barcelona, 12/3/04__________________________________________

The external features of the palace are also stunning – wrought iron grilles, which, like the Islamicmotifs, feature vegetal and animal influences. There is a wonderful shuttered gallery on the rearfacade, and Gaudí’s clever mosaic chimneys and ventilation shafts on the roof. It is an extremelypowerful building; nothing is understated. The five levels, including the basement, gradually movefrom darkness to light, from a sense of oppression to one of delight high amongst the roof forms.But the Palau does have a dark side, and the day I visited I learned of the previous day’s bombing atAtocha station, which influenced the entry:__________________________________________

Both the book that I purchased about the building and the Lonely Planet guide note that after the Civil Warthe building became a police station, and that ‘criminals’ were housed in the basement. Lonely Planet goesfurther in saying that prisoners were tortured there. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; these pillars andarches which I admired today must have been regarded with horror by some – it seems as if at presentbeauty and horror are inseparable, as if one accentuates the other, or by its presence makes the othervisible. These buildings and the artworks within are reflections of faith, and as such they also attract fearand violence. There is a history here of layers of obliteration – the enormous weighty cathedral set downinto the Córdoban mosque, which was built on top of a Visigoth church, Carlos V’s renaissance palacedumped into the Alhambra, the police cell, a chilling manifestation of fear in Palau Güell.

Diary, Barcelona, 12/3/04

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Entrance, Palau Güell, Barcelona

Not having bought any papers or watched television for some time I had known nothing of theatrocity. I wrote a good deal more that day, but it is perhaps not relevant here. However, such eventscolour your view of the world and make you feel helpless. I stood with thousands and thousands ofSpanish people in absolute silence on the street that night, but it was too much; their quiet anger andresolve were overwhelming.

Suddenly the churches and cathedrals I had been visiting were filled with quiet families, piles offlowers and rows of lighted candles flickering in the gloom. Black ribbons pinned to white sheets orthe Catalonian flag appeared from the balconies. In every street window the black ribbon appeared,and life went on.

In the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona was a large retrospective of Antoni Tàpies’ work. Itseemed the only thing that was absolutely appropriate, and even necessary, to view. It seemed alesson in human nature, a focus on what it is to be human in the world, through thought, ritual,relationship and the ever-present awareness of death. Remnants of clothing, human marks andtextures, references to the naked or shrouded body, fragile and perishable materials, and the coloursand textures of the earth acknowledge the passing of time and the transience of the human spirit.His beautiful exhibition was a consolation to me.

I stayed in Barcelona for three weeks, and saw so much it is impossible to record everything here. Iwent back onto the Gaudí trail, visiting Casa Batlló, Casa Vicens(another favourite), the Güell Pavilions, Casa Calvet, Park Güell,Casa Milà, and the gate of the Miralles estate. I took the trainto La Colònia Güell; an entire factory and township designedby Moderniste architects, with the crypt a centrepiece of Gaudíarchitecture. The model for the crypt, a unique design solutionin which Gaudí calculated the catenary arches by suspendingsmall bags of sand on looped string and then reversing theimage, is in the museum at Sagrada Família. On my way homeone night I came across an installation artist in the Passeig deGràcia who was using the updraft from a metro grill toconstruct a looped model from toilet paper; I liked theconnections and inversions between the two ideas.

I visited the Palau de la Música Catalana, built for the CatalanChoral Society between 1905 and 1908 by Domènech iMontaner, another prominent Moderniste Catalan architect.Considering the sumptuosity of decoration – mosaics, carvings,sculptures, lead lighting, murals – with which the building isembellished both inside and outside, it is astonishing to learnthat it was completed in such a short time. My tour guideexplained that this was very much due to the new concept of

prefabrication – most pieces such as the mosaic pillars were made off-site in a workshop and theninstalled. Also worth noting is the sensitivity with which the air conditioning has been installed – theair ducts have become the holes in the centres of the three dimensional flowers which cover theceiling.

Barcelona bulges with architectural ideas, and it is wise to purchase a Barcelona Design Guide,available from the architects’ bookshop opposite the old cathedral. This book gives you architecturalitineraries, walking tours which include parks, bridges, buildings, almost anything of note. I managedto do about four of these, and learned enormous amounts about Barcelona as a result.

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Window grilles, Casa Vicens, Gaudí

I visited the textile museum, the Tàpies Foundation, the Miró Foundation, countless exhibitionsincluding three of Dali’s, the Museum of Archaeology and the Museum of Catalonian History, whichwas showing ‘Franco’s Prisons’, an insight for me into why the Spanish people are so strong and silentin the face of horror. In Montjuïc there is the Caixa Forum, an exhibition complex housed in an oldceramics factory by Puig i Cadafalch. Not to be missed is the astounding collection of Romanesqueart housed in the Museu Nacional d’Art Catalunya in Montjuïc Park. This is thought to be one of themost important collections in the world, and no expense has been spared in its display. Frescoes,originally found deteriorating in the apses of churches located largely in the Pyrenees, define thecollection. The structure of the churches has been recreated within the gallery, and the frescoespainstakingly transferred to their interior shells using a stacco technique.

I was preparing for the journey to my final destination – Bilbao, and Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim. As anintroduction to his work I went to see his sculptural fish, on the Barcelona coast:__________________________________________

From a long distance away it glittered in thesun like a chopped copper sardine – it’sshape, form and colour is enticing. Up close itbecomes a shade structure – filleted! – ahollow, undulating canopy contrasting withthe geometrical architecture around it.

Nearby, on a rooftop, a large spherical ballteetered before the moment of falling…

Diary, Barcelona, 19/3/04

__________________________________________

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‘Peix’, Frank Gehry

Bilbao

Every industrial city seems to have a river tomatch. The Ria de Bilbao is an oily green, butit winds through the city centre lined now oneither side with wide paved boulevardspunctuated by sculptures and state-of-the-art lighting. Gehry has understood thecharacter of the city perfectly, and hissculptural building embraces it, draws it intoits heart while giving it new life.

It was an added bonus on my walk to comeround the corner and find Louise Bourgeois’ ‘Maman’ looming overand menacing the little pedestrians walking beneath her poisedlegs. It seems to me the most perfectly placed piece of publicsculpture I’ve ever seen – its materials, scale, colour andrelationship to the museum work beautifully on all levels.

Diary, Bilbao, 29/3/04__________________________________________

The heart is also used as an analogy by the Museum indiscussion about its building; the 55 metre high atrium islikened to that organ, the core of the structure to whicheveryone returns after viewing each gallery, unlike the moretraditional museum plan which follows room after room like atunnel, (or bowel, perhaps?) with increasingly less chance ofescape.

Of my one complete day in Bilbao, I spent seven hours in theGuggenheim; there was so much to explore. The building, withits limestone blocks, each with a different curve cut by computertechnology, the titanium panels which the locals liken to fish scales, and even the air conditioningducts which are reduced to a fine black line where the wall joins the ceiling.

In the 130 metre long gallery Richard Serra’s ‘Snake’, two high undulating walls of Core 10 steelprovide a narrow, claustrophobic walkway which reminded me of Toledo. This gallery also housed anincredible feat of painting from James Rosenquist, entitled ‘The Swimmer in the Econo-mist’, a historypainting for the end of the millennium which represents the period of the 20th century following thecollapse of the Berlin Wall. Swirling images hurtle across the lengthy canvas, moving from black andwhite to colour, from abstraction to glimpses of realism, and seeming to pick up vaguely recognisablefragments such as Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ and consumer products.

In a smaller ground floor gallery there was a beautiful installation by Miguel Navarro called ‘WalledCity’ which has become part of the Guggenheim’s permanent collection. Laid out over the floor was aplan consisting of lead, zinc and aluminium shapes which could be interpreted as a model of a city orsculptures. Honed down to simple but ambiguous shapes it was left to the viewer’s imagination as tothe identity, place scale, and construction of such a city. It was city as a possibility, as an idea.

Upstairs, in one of several galleries, I liked Glenn Ligon’s ‘Notes on the Margins of the Black Book’ ashrewd comment on a collection of Robert Maplethorpe’s photographs.

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‘Maman’, Louise Bourgeois

The Guggenheim, Frank Gehry

A walk round the city in the late afternoonconfirmed its very public design ethic – inNorman Foster’s metro shafts whichemerge from the pavements like glassprawn shells, and in the bridges, parks,paving and the careful placement ofsubstantial and sophisticated publicartworks. There is an obvious commitmentto new building projects. But then, anyoneflying into Bilbao would pass throughSantiago Calatrava’s small but stunningfuturistic airport – a building which leavesone in no doubt as to the quality of whatlies ahead. The declining post-industrialtown of Bilbao has reinvented itself withattitude, and it has done so visuallythrough cutting-edge architecture, art anddesign. This brings wealth to the city,discerning tourists from around the globe,and the Basques are now rightly proud ofBilbao’s place in the world.

Such a change takes courage, vision, andthe understanding that people need tomake informed, clever and sophisticateddecisions. In Australia, there is still amalaise of mediocrity and introversionclinging to aspects of the builtenvironment, and there is still a widespreadignorance of how the art and designdisciplines can contribute to our lives andcommunities on all sorts of levels. As for decoration and textile design, there are few opportunities,especially in Queensland, which allow people to understand its true contribution and history. Toimprove our environment there have to be risks taken by leaders with a strong, informed andpassionate vision for the future; instead, frequently, we seem trussed in fear of litigation and upsettinguninformed, unsophisticated clients who have little care for, or understanding of, the arts. GeorgeBernard Shaw wrote in 1903,‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable onepersists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonableman’.

It has been a very great privilege to visit Spain. For me this trip has been a confirmation of myprofession and practice, and consequently who I am as an artist. I have come away with information,new inspiration, new ideas, new understanding, and an invaluable sense of being connected to therest of the world. Such an experience gives confidence, and it also increases the need to question.And to ask questions, especially of oneself, aside from being the job of an artist, is surely one of themost valuable things we can do.

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Metro shaft, Norman Foster, Bilbao

Bridge, Santiago Calatrava, Bilbao

Epilogue – remembering spring

It was the birch trees that got me first – a stand glimpsed brieflythrough a window at Frankfurt Airport. It was February and theystood naked, silver poles that stratified the space between us.And the colours! Browns and greys, but soft and subtle asbreath.

As the days wore on the blossom came – and grass, green asemerald sprouted from the dark sodden soil. Now April, and I amhigh in the Pyrenees. Stone villages and ivy, bright sky, whitemountains, rushing streams of melted snow – and birch trees,veiling the hillsides.

My soul is singing because I have a memory of these things, andtoday it is receiving replenishment. Land is not exterior to us, it’sin us. This is my heritage, and I am home.

Diary, by train through the Pyrenees en route to France, 1/4/04__________________________________________

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Bibliography

Bonet i Armengol, J., No date, Temple Sagrada Família, Editorial Escudo de Oro, Barcelona, Spain.

Carandell, J.M., Pla, R. and Vivas, P., 2003, Le Palau de la Música Catalana, Triangle Postals, Barcelona,Spain.

Cirlot, J., Vivas, P. and Pla, R., 2001, Gaudí, an introduction to his architecture, Triangle Postals, Barcelona,Spain.

Critchlow, K., 1976, Islamic Patterns: An Analytical and Cosmological Approach, Thames & Hudson Ltd,London, UK.

Eyewitness Travel Guides, 2003, Spain, Dorling Kindersley Ltd., London, UK.

González, A., Lacuesta, R., Moreno, J., de Pui, J. and Salvà, M. G., 2002, The Güell Palace, Diputacio deBarcelona, Spain.

Leiz, J.P., Feriche, R., 1999, Barcelona Design Guide, Editorial Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, Spain.

Lonely Planet, 2003, Spain, Lonely Planet Publications, Victoria, Australia.

Pla, R., Vivas, P., Domènech, M. and Funes, A. G., 2003, La Còlonia Güell, Triangle Postals, Barcelona, Spain.

Williams, M., 2000, The Story of Spain: the dramatic history of Europe’s most fascinating country,Ediciones Santana S.L., Málaga, Spain.

Exhibition catalogues, brochures, pamphlets, information sheets and maps collected along the way.

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