On May 28th, she made of this mother-son outing a case for why we should care about art, telling her followers how Venice and its galleries were what she needed to stay in time with her ‘internal metronome’.
Why this one from Venice made an impression
There was no postcard pretension here. Khanna put pen to paper like an author out in the field, and the way she wove in a bit of wit with her thinking is what made you stop and read.
Others noticed. You had Namrata Shirodkar with the red hearts and Ananya Panday in the likes, so it wasn’t just her regulars who were on board.
The kind of art that does the trick
Then there was the one photo that had people talking: Paolo Veronese’s The Last Supper (or The Feast in the House of Levi, if you want to be precise) at the Gallerie dell’Accademia. Right in front of it was Marina Abramovic’s shoe piece. It was a head-on meeting of then and now, and you could tell Khanna was making a point of it.
She even let us in on a phrase that set the tone for her: “Venice is a fish.” She found it in a book at the museum. It was a neat way of putting it – the city has a way of swimming past the noise and coming up with something clear.
And then there was the gelato
But it wasn’t all high-brow. She’ll be the first to tell you she got turned around in the Venetian maze and put in a good word for it over a gelato with the ‘favourite person in the world’. The canals and side streets are good for a chat when you don’t have to be in a hurry.
Her route took her to the Arsenale to see Alice Maher’s take on the birth of Aphrodite. There was a method to it: an old story for new times, not unlike the way she was looking at things.
What everyone is latching onto
With all the pings and dings these days, she put it simply: ‘I felt like a restrung guitar, my spirit pulled tight, so I could once again keep pace with my internal metronome.’ It has the ring of a deep breath, which is probably why it put in some miles on the timeline.
Instead of a quip to end on, she left it open: 'What does art do for you? And try and be specific so it’s more fun :)’ You don’t need a filter to get people to think.
If you were in the comments or sharing, this is what you were on about:
– Where the old masters run up against something new
– A book from the museum that puts you in a mood
– Some alleys you can get lost in and make time for
– A gelato with her boy that was hard to miss
– A caption with a diary feel to it
More than a few pretty pictures
This is in keeping with the rest of her feed – a mix of what she’s reading, some essays and a little everyday banter. But this one from Venice has some heft to it. It’s a way of saying that attention is a muscle and you have to work it.
The photos are fine, but the words do the heavy lifting. She doesn’t make a list of where she’s been, from the Accademia to the Arsenale. It’s not an itinerary, it’s a state of mind.
A reason to slow down
Most of what you see of travel is about being on the move. Khanna’s post was for the other side of that: to really look at a painting and what’s in front of it. For a lot of us, it was like being given leave to put the phone down for a minute.
With summer coming on, her little diary from Venice is as good as any advice: go for a walk, read, stand still and have the gelato. The city will handle the rest, provided you’re in the mood for it.
