Symbolism is everywhere in the design of La Sagrada Familia. The basilica will have 18 towers when complete - representing Jesus and Mary. the twelve apostles, and the four evangelists. The tallest tower (that representing Jesus) rises to a height of 172.5 meters - the same height as Montjuic, the highest point in Barcelona. Gaudi did not want the towers to exceed what God had created in the natural world. The basilica has three grand facades representing the Nativity (east - sunrise), the Passion (west - sunset), Glory (the Resurrection - south). The Nativity facade has three doors, representing Faith, Hope, and Charity. There are two columns with turtles at the base - one on the land side of Barcelona, the other on the sea side.

Modernists design with an eye towards nature. The many sculptors who have worked on La Sagrada Familia use geometric (especially curved lines) and nature-based forms inside and out. The columns in the interior of the basilica were created to mimic the branching arms of trees. The light coming through the stained glass windows cascades through the branched columns as light would filter through a forest canopy. The stained glass provides different effects as through the day. Sunrise (Nativity) is filtered through the blues and greens of the stained glass on the east and sunset (Passion) is filtered through the reds, oranges,and yellows of the stained glass on the west. Gaudi spent more than 40 years working on La Sagrada Familia, including 15 years where he lived onsite. In 1926, he was killed in a tram accident and is now buried in a crypt in the basilica. The target completion date is 2026 - the hundredth year of Gaudi's death. 

St. Paul's Cathedral in London is the home of two 21st century video artworks by the husband and wife team of Bill Viola and Kira Pirov.  

Created by Bill Viola and Kira Perov and opened in May 2014, Martyrs shows four individuals, across four colour vertical plasma screens, being martyred by the four classical elements. The work has no sound. It lasts for seven minutes.

Bill Viola writes: "As the work opens, four individuals are shown in stasis, a pause from their suffering. Gradually there is movement in each scene as an element of nature begins to disturb their stillness. Flames rain down, winds begin to lash, water cascades, and earth flies up. As the elements rage, each martyr’s resolve remains unchanged. In their most violent assault, the elements represent the darkest hour of the martyr’s passage through death into the light."

Martyrs was joined in 2016 by a second piece entitled Mary.  

Kira Pirov writes: “Moving through its five parts, the work describes a cycle of birth through to death, depicting both an eternal, universal Mary, and an earthly Mary representing human life on Earth. 

As the Mother, she is a timeless icon that transcends daily contemporary existence that flows endlessly behind her as time and space are displaced. As earthly Mary, she is a seeker, a traveler, who takes her place in a vast natural world, on a difficult journey that endows her with strength and compassion. The pièta of Mary is the embodiment of eternal sorrow. This vision of death among the ruins represents an ailing and wounded humanity that Mary carries alone, providing a place of refuge and solace in the intimate sharing of grief and pain that her image as an icon offers to those who seek comfort.

As ‘container of the uncontainable,’ Mary encompasses all spiritual life.” 

RJC, 5/2/2018