Cathedral Of Unknown Desires
Geurt Van Dijk 1992
Photograph by Val Corbett
Along with 'The Spores', the 'Cathedral Of Unknown Desires' is one of only two sculptures at Grizedale that I've had the pleasure of seeing during its construction. Unlike with Kerry Morrison's piece, however, here I didn't actually speak to, or engage with the artist in any way.
My dad and I were walking the Silurian Way and it didn't seem like a good idea to bother Geurt, as he was sitting atop the dome-like part at the bottom. Apart from a few of the longer pieces, the rest of the sculpture hadn't been built yet. By the side of the Cathedral, a woman was sitting on a tree stump, making a tiny, matchstick-sized exact replica of the sculpture, I've no idea what happened to that. I was only very young, about seven or eight years old, had I been a bit older I would probably have started up a conversation with them.
Geurt Van Dijk was born in the Netherlands in 1941, so by my reckoning he was fifty-one when he built the 'Cathedral Of Unknown Desires', an impressive age to be climbing all the way to the top like he can be seen doing in Bill Grant and Paul Harris' 'Natural Order', where he says:
"I count the days... started in the morning and the day finished with care and then sunslow; the contemplation, the navel staring! Between the light and the dark; twilight, sunslow. One day as a thousand years. A 'hommage' to Kurt Schwitters; 'Cathedral for the Unknown Desires'.
About the intense desire of a small human being and the fear for eternity."
Considering how fragile it appears, it lasted a surprisingly long time, a couple of years at least. It must have been sturdier than it looked if it could hold the artist's weight.