Xu Bing’s “Phoenix” will soar out of St. John the Divine on March 15 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Ave. at 112th St.
Daily through March 15, suggested donation $10
212-316-7540
www.stjohndivine.org
After more than a year spent hovering over the nave at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Huang and Feng are getting ready to take off on the next part of a journey that has seen them go from Beijing to Shanghai to Massachusetts. In January 2014, Chinese artist Xu Bing, who lives and works in Beijing and New York, installed two giant phoenixes, the ninety-foot-long male Feng and the hundred-foot-long female Huang, the two totaling more than twelve tons, at the cathedral. Originally commissioned for the World Financial Center in Beijing, “Phoenix” was ultimately rejected when Xu, a member of the ’85 New Wave Movement who went through “reeducation” as a child and whose father spent time in jail as a political prisoner, decided to use detritus from construction sites to build the two birds as a statement emphasizing the widening gap between the wealthy and the poor, capital and labor in China, where peasant communities are torn down to make way for high-end commercial ventures. It would be easy to see “Phoenix” as a metaphor for the mythological creatures rising from the ashes, especially at St. John the Divine, evoking not only the resurrection of Jesus but the cathedral’s seven-year restoration following a devastating 2001 six-alarm fire, but in Chinese legend the phoenix, known as the fenghuang, represents the combination of yin and yang, the sun and the moon, made up of elements from different animals and celestial bodies, filled with the promise of good fortune, loyalty, dignity, and compassion.
Xu, whose other recent New York projects include “The Living Word” at the Morgan, “Where Does the Dust Itself Collect?” in the Spinning Wheel Building, and “The Character of Characters” animated video at the Met, did not build Feng and Huang with random debris, instead carefully constructing each body part with specific objects; for example, the heads are made from the nose of industrial jackhammers, depicting strength and power, while feathers are built from shovelheads. Working with a team of primarily migrant workers, Xu also incorporates bamboo, girders, tools, hard hats, rebar, wheels, and other waste materials found at Beijing construction sites. “With this, there’s a kind of internal logic that produces beauty. You also produce a sense of humor,” Xu said through a translator in an artist talk he gave at MASS MoCA, where “Phoenix” made its U.S. debut in 2013. He then compared his process to Chinese folk art. “The method of Chinese folk art is to use the most inexpensive, the cheapest materials to express [people’s] hopes for the future and for their lives.” He also added LED lights to Feng and Huang, turning them into mysterious constellations in the dark. Facing away from the altar, the phoenixes are imbued with an engaging spirituality, especially when the cathedral’s church organ is being played, the music echoing throughout the vast space. The birds look very much at home inside this self-described “house of prayer for all people and a unifying center of intellectual light and leadership,” companions to Greg Wyatt’s outdoor Peace Fountain, but on March 15 they will be migrating once again, off on the next stop of their amazing journey.