PEONY PRAYER

F.W. Woolworth Windows
Tacoma, Washington
2004

  • First Presbyterian Church. Fidelity Trust Building. F.W. Woolworth's.

    Reverence. Religion. Finance. Commerce.

    Sacred. Secular. Sensual.

    Faith. Worship. Steeple. Pew.

    Gathered Voices. Strength. Spiritual. Church.

    Solitary. Forest. Conservatory. Sanctuary.

    Nature's divine designs. Human nature. Architecture.

    Church. Home. Store. Ritual. Spiritual. Reverie Visions.

    Neo-Gothic Windows

    Referencing stained glass windows utilized in Christian churches to explain the story of Christ pictorially, historically, to the illiterate populations. Scholars understood the deeper symbology within the glass paintings. The "stained glass" designs for the Woolworth installation are deconstructed photographic images of peony flowers. Patterns of pink and fuchsia. Peony petals. Color of blush. Heat. Passion. Pleasure. The body dances. Connection with the baptism. Sacred.

    Paned Windows

    Referencing house. Shaker. Quaker. Domestic space. Sacred place. Emily Dickinson. Home. Room. Sanctuary. Her bedroom window. The glass. Her garden. Her greenhouse. She rejected the religious evangelism of the day. Words... Distilled. Delicate. Haunting. "God" inspired.

    "Window Panes"

    Quotes by Poet Walt Whitman. 19th century Victorianism. Puritanical Piety. Civil War. Whitman's written expression celebrated self. Sensuousness. Sexuality.

    Joseph Cornell. The enchanted voyeur. Woolworth's Cathedral. Merchandise maze. Nickel and dime prayers. Closet truths... Home again. Dreamer. Reader. Boxes. Files. Films. Ephemeral Letters.

    In the eyes of the poet... the chapel. exists. Everywhere.

    Cast Wax Hymnals

    Open book. Wing like. At their fingertips. In their palms. Psalms. The spirit absentia standing. Singing. Choir. Intensity. Communal voices. Hymnals. Waxing grey green sea glass.

    -Jo Ann Fleischhauer 2004

PHOTOS BY JO ANN FLEISCHHAUER

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