Threads
of many colors intertwined within
A complex and diverse tapestry.
Seeking to unite the fabric by inclusiveness,
Vast arrays of shapes and textures, colors and sounds,
Thoughts and language of one World, one Humanity.
It is ours to make a peaceful dwelling place,
Only to be savored for the moment and then passed along
To the next generation of caretakers.
This sacred trust is for all to share
The magnificence of what is before us.
We have reveled in our uniqueness, our place in
The universe for far too long;
With Nature's revealed truth,
Man is but a strand in the web of life.
THE
TAPESTRY OF HOPE is a poem that we composed for our commissioned, multimedia
installation, THE THREADS THAT BIND US - EARTH ELEGIES. This installation
was part of the AISHET HAYIL/WOMAN OF VALOR exhibition (1993-94)
at Yeshiva University Museum in NYC.
It was written as an interactive component which invited the viewer to be
a participant in this site-specific installation. Those who chose to participate
were asked to add their hand by tying a knot onto a tapestry, while perhaps
giving a momentary pause to contemplate the future well being of the Earth..
In the spirit of enlarging our collaboration and the interactive element of
our work, we asked visitors to our DIALOGUES WITH THE DEITY solo
show to create their own unique statements. The poem was broken up into thirty-two
phrases that were then put onto magnetic metallic strips and placed randomly
on a lectern-like structure. The results varied not only in their expressions,
but in their physical configurations as well. A sampling of these were documented
as part of the evolving process of the installation.
When we created our viewart website in 1994, THE
TAPESTRY OF HOPE became one of the first pieces of interactive literature
on the World Wide Web. Visitors to our poem page can, once again, transpose
the order of the phrases and when satisfied, email their poem, which becomes
part of an international electronic archive.
In our installation, IN THE BEGINNING, part
of the ELEMENTS exhibition (1998-99) at the Los Angeles Municipal
Gallery, Frank Lloyd Wright's Barnsdall Art Park, poems submitted via the
Internet to Barnsdall were printed out and placed within a book -- EVOLUTION:
A TAPESTRY OF HOPE.
In 2008 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of our work with the Love
Canal Homeowners Association - LOVE CANAL: BLUEPRINT FOR A
DISASTER - and the 15th anniversary of our TAPESTRY OF HOPE
interactive poem, we launched a worldwide environmental project - STRANGE
LOVE, EARTHLY SINS: EARTH ELEGIES V- where we repurposed the poem to
serve as its confessional PENANCE
component.
As The Tapestry
of Hope has now entered into its second decade, we once again invite
you to join CoLabART and create your own poem regarding the future well being
of the Earth as a facet to our
VOICE OF THE LANDSCAPE project
In the spirit of
enlarging our collaboration, we ask that you become a
co-creator with us by using phrases from our poem
to create your own unique statement.
"We are still
in Eden; the wall that shuts us out of the garden is our ignorance and folly." Thomas Cole, Essay on American
Scenery, 1835
Let us be remembered as the wise ones who veered away from extinction
so that we may be recalled as the stewards of salvation
who charted a path towards a sustainable future.
