When you come up in the world, you may come in.

This man – seeing everything for miles around, and reciprocally seen by everyone with an eye sharp enough – has been sitting on top of the Bern Minster (Cathedral) for more than a hundred years. Given Switzerland’s rather uneventful history during this time, it must have been dead boring. Coming up in the world is guaranteed to lead to a recessing hairline, but not happiness. Besides, there are pigeons there. 

Alternatively, this golden angel watches the ever changing art shows from atop a room in the Royal Academy of Art in London. Pigeons are not allowed, which is a bonus and a relief. Visitors rarely pay the angel any attention, for art on the walls is their primary mission.

It took an artist to make the angel visible: these columns are hollow with a spiral flight of stairs leading to a flat room from which a personal introduction to the angel takes place:

Up there, you can watch the angels, talk to them, wonder at their celestial beauty – but don’t touch them (there are signs, “Please do not touch the historic architecture” everywhere).

Would you choose to be an angel indoors watching over the evolution of art (which tends to get more artificial with each passing century) or a pigeon-friendly statue outside enjoying the never-changing lanscape of ordinary lives? 

To sample this blog, click on About at the top. It has links to some of my best or typical posts. There’s an Art & Fun shelf if you feel like in need of a laugh.

Come back: we’ll be talking about the Apocalypse once again in a couple of days