On Phoenix Wings

Phoenix Wing

This past Saturday, I headed to the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine for Crafts at the Cathedral (my favorite holiday craft show). I took a slight -- albeit long -- detour to finally visit the Cathedral itself where I spent a lot of time trying to capture Phoenix (a sculpture by Xu Bing that graces the main nave). It's an amazing piece of art as I blogged in Phoenix Rising. I particularly love the back story of Bing going to the building site for World Financial Center in Beijing and being so moved by the working conditions of the laborers that he decided to make his sculpture out of found materials scavenged from the construction site. Not least among these are the red shovels that form the bones of the massive wings and the green tubing that decorates the body of Feng.

This stop may be a bit off the beaten track when it comes to NYC and seeing the holiday decorations but, even without the Phoenix installation, this Cathedral is well worth a detour to explore the Cathedral itself and surrounding grounds. It's a stop on most bus tours of the city -- so hop off if you have the time!