Terrible title Kent. Everybody groan together now.
i am the pun god - bow before me!
How about the pun turd?
today was a much more exciting expedition around the ol' frankenfurter. Ra-ther.
first, we strolled our way through the museum fur moderne kunst and were well impressed.
although, as luck would have it, pretty much every single gallery and museum we've been to has been either closed for repairs and renovation or in the process of deinstalling their last exhibition and preparing the next. our luck, in this regard, has been so abysmal it borders on the comical. Big sigh.
on this occasion, the museum was in between major shows and we just missed 'form without objects' or something
similarly exciting, and were a week early for a showcase of the best of their collection.
nuts!
the upshot of this affair was that we scored free entry and saved ourselves 12 euro.
the gallery spaces and the building itself was quite a treat in its own right.
lots and lots of rooms, curiously shaped, with ample light and flow.
The whole experience was like a labyrinth - while in its best form, I imagine the gallery has quite a concentric flow. Due to so much of it being closed, we were faced with many dead ends, which somehow made the experience more exciting - sort of like an art treasure hunt!
on show was a great collection of photography, a gregor schneider installation, a james turrell work
and a couple of other bits.
but it was the photography that was truly exciting. i'm not normally a big art photography but almost every
single image on display was worth a good hard look and offered something to think about.
there was a room full of jock sturges' photos - images of young people, incredibly stunning - that we are pretty sure would have trouble getting a showing in australia, given the conservative bent our sexual mores - to be fair, they were pretty raunchy, and by young, we're talking much in the way of pre-puberty -
which is a damned shame coz the images were spellbinding. I think we both found it quite confronting how beautiful these images were. They were absolutely stunning. They were also coupled with a collection of some pretty alarming images of areas of Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia, blown to smithereens. However, every single image was again, spellbinding.
we stumbled into the darkness of the james turrell room and were again fooled by his lighting wizardry.
what appeared to be a glowing light cast on the wall, was in fact a hole in the plaster, the size of a small cinema screen. we knew this was probably the case, given a previous viewing of his work in venice, but still, you get fooled again by the whole brilliance of it. What was more brilliant was Kent walking into a wall on our way in. It gets pretty dark in there. Turell's works are so weird in that you inch toward them cautiously, bit by bit, with your hands out ready, and then all of a sudden it seems to be only a few feet away, though you swore it was metres, and while you are having this perplexing argument in your head, your hand disappears right inside the work, because it is actually there, not there. At this point (as I have done before in these situations) is gurgled "that's fucked" and hurry away, because all my senses have been completely befuddled.
we spent a good amount of time in the museum and came away quite enthralled.
AND, I know I seem to go on about toilets a lot in this blog, but this one is extra legitimate! Just as we were on our way out, I ducked into the ladies, and was greeted with a pretty cool Pipilotti Rist video/sound installation in my cubical. Lots of 'la la la' -ing and some frolicking in meadows. (If I was thinking I would have checked what work it was, but I was too busy basking in the colourful lights.) What a treat!
and then, as we were heading off to check out the local galleries in the area, we were greeted by the sight
of a delightful old chap in wonderful pants...
hahaha - genius!
Hahaha! Still looks like a bare bum!
so, we thought we might cross the river to the other side of town, hoping that maybe the soul of the city was over there, away from the empty void of the shopping malls and the bank headquarters.
on the southern side of the river there are a number of museums so i was going on the theory that where there was art,
there was probably vibe. you know, like boutiques, cafes and ambiance.
once across the bridge i was already feeling something a little more vibrational in the air.
Isn't he a smug bastard? I can assure you this whole 'theory' was well verbalised throughout our journey.
and then, in homeric fashion, was a sign from the gods that we were totally in the right area...
a handful of baby goslings waddling about on the riverbank.
cute, no?
GAH!!! ADORABLE!!! I AM ACTUALLY DYING!
It's the first time I have run in the entire trip - and wow. I am out of shape - because I was worried that
the goslings would have jumped back into the river by the time I got there.
then we found our way to a beautiful meal at a cafe, chicken breast pasta and
zucchini crepe. (Currently salivating over food memories. gaaaaah.) really delicious food.
It was so good to have some proper indulgent food - a great way to celebrate all of our hard work
of being on holiday the last three months. Hehe.
from there we found ourselves a little district with some nice boutiques to peruse.
in one, we got blessed again with the cash sitch, coz the dude totally gave us an extra 10 euro in change from the presents that we bought for the dads.
nice.
back across the bridge, chased by thunder and snow storm of hayfever inducing fluffy pollen we ventured back into town for a final attempt at some shopping and soaking up of the general foreign-ness of germany before heading home to melbourne town.
artful sculpture right next to the central bank. imagine putting up a giant dollar sign in canberra ... uber-tacky, no? Classy shit.
anyway, after trashing frankfurt and its general soullessness and boringness yesterday, i can safely report that there is actually some soul in the town and a quite nice vibe, if you get out of the city itself. It seems pretty safe to conclude that Frankfurt city has no permanent residents, and the worst pedestrian setup I have ever experienced (totally stupid and badly designed). It truly is a city of international businessmen and cars - an urban plan that puts people before cars is clearly the only proper option for a better cityscape. However, it has made us really appreciate the local areas we have spent the last three months exploring, and made the trip back home to Melbourne town that much sweeter. We can't wait to see you all!
We are both still amazed at the generosity of our friends who sent us on this adventure, and we thank you kindly for your awesome-pants wedding gift. It has sent us to a dozen awesome cities and towns, given us cushy beds to sleep in, taken us to a stack of museums and galleries, and financed some pretty kicking threads. Not to mention a wide variety and number of daily coffees.
And as for the rest of you - all I can say is that we can't wait to start the next adventure. The prospect of finding our next home and getting to unpack the stunning array of goodies we received from you, is making Australia seem very very exciting. Thank you! So in all in all - kick-arse wedding, best honeymoon ever, and our friends and family ROCK.
here here.
a thousand glowing thank yous to all and sundry who have helped us on our way this honeymoon.
we are truly very grateful and humbled by your thoughtfulness and your generosity.
its always impossible to quantify the benefit of travel but i assure you all that this trip has been fuel for our souls, and has enriched our personal growth and our marriage by vast magnitudes.
next stop - a country home, a business venture and many more exciting creations.
epic love !
xxx
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