Laurie Wohl’s exquisite and profoundly spiritual exhibition Birds of Longing: Exile and Memory was mounted at the Cathedral as scheduled during the week of January 10. But concerns about the highly infectious omicron variant have closed the Cathedral to most public events over this period of several weeks, which we hope soon will end.
As a result, the opening reception originally scheduled for Friday, January 28 has been postponed to Friday, February 18 from 5:00-7:00 with the hope that more people will be able to view these stunning works in person.
However, in the meantime, the Cathedral has created a way to experience virtually these penetrating works of fabric art developed over the last two decades in response to the events of 9/11.
A new video on the Cathedral’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/SKEeCRbKnRs provides a soundscape (originally created by the artist for use with an iPod while viewing the exhibit in person). Exploratory videos of each individual piece were then attached to this soundscape by the Cathedral’s Canon for Music and the Arts, Thomas Lloyd.
The readings consist of the scripture and poetry chosen and elegantly painted into each tapestry by Laurie Wohl, now read aloud in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. The artist believes that the spiritual messages of these texts are best experienced through a combination of the sounds of the original languages and the visual elements of calligraphy, color, design, and Wohl’s original technique she calls Unweaving.
Accompanying these readings is idiomatically haunting music adapted by Daniel Wohl from the album Provenance by the incomparable Israeli-born cellist Maya Beiser.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/beiser-maya-provenance/369028442
Links are provided below the video in YouTube so that viewers can make a daily meditation practice starting with any of the seventeen individual tracks. Individuals and small groups can also visit the exhibition in person by calling the Cathedral offices at 215-386-0234 for an appointment.
The booklet for this exhibition is available here.
Sunday at 8:30am, 10:40am & 6pm
