Social Niceties

I was keen to see these wonderful Richard Serra sculptures in the Guggenheim. By the time I got there it was practically empty, just 2 or 3 people wandering in and out of these amazing hulks of metal. I started with the farthest, winding in on myself further and further in some kind of Kafkesque nightmare. Despite the lingering voices and chatter from the other parts of the museum, I was pretty much alone down here in the middle of a Richard Serra sculpture. Then I heard footsteps echoing against the metal. The footsteps got closer and my inner Britishness started to wonder about the correct etiquette when meeting another person inside the confined space of a sculpture. I coughed and the footsteps stopped momentarily then started again, going away from me. Clearly I was not the only person hoping to experience this alone.

Later as I walked through the long wiggles in the centre I did encounter another museum-goer, a portly man with a large stomach that brushed against me as we politely squeezed past each other carefully avoiding any eye contact at all.

I enjoyed Yoko Ono's Wish Tree, and made a wish for myself and Kate whom I'd met through a wish tree 15 years earlier. The Georges Braque exhibition was wonderful, colourful, charming, idiosynchratic, but it was his etchings that I loved - an unanticipated treat.