Bison in the Cathedral
BISON IN THE CATHEDRAL is a video projected outdoors on a church wall: an imaginary scenario of wild animals wander into hallowed architecture to reshape its metaphoric space.
The looped projection of sound & image is the confluence of how animal sentience merges with built geometry and the psychoacoustic architecture of the church. Stark images of wild animals—moose, bear, wolf and bison—merge, collide, and augment religious icons (a constellation of saints and angels), in such a way that all creatures are given pride of place and presented as equals.
Do these images reveal the natural world fiercely struggling to escape humanity's grip and destruction? Or will the animals be comforted and content with the hope of a renewed spiritual practice (and one perhaps infused with the sacredness of animal spirit)? Can the cathedral escape the burden of an iconic past? Is a way forward retrofitting the symbolism of the building as caretaker for all sentient beings (and perhaps all that thinks, inclusive of thinking machines in the future)? Ambient choral music & crashing waves accompanying the images—sounds that enhance or soften the liminal state of fear & confusion in a time of plague—as time runs out for all animals and humankind.
BISON IN THE CATHEDRAL invites everyone to contemplate our planet’s future; a future where there’s hope for all sentient beings and the environment; it projects a novel way of connecting and caring for each other.
