Lessons & Carols

by Melissa Choi & Isaac Tin Wei Lin

December 8, 2019

The cube represents the physical manifestation of God's presence. When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, the presence of the Lord dwelled in a tent. We wanted to create a tent like structure to reference God's first dwelling with us as a parallel to the birth of Christ when God's presence came to dwell with us in Jesus.  We wanted to bring other imagery of 'God with us' without referencing baby Jesus. The large size of the piece (9ft square) looming over the back of the congregation served as a physical reminder that God is here at Lessons and Carols even though we cannot see him. We sought to create a sort of comfortable/uncomfortable reminder.

We created an illusion of a floating Cube to represent a physical manifestation of God's Presence. Advent is the celebration of the arrival of Christ, but right now we are in a time of waiting for him to return to make all things new. The floating aspect of the Cube symbolizes the transition of coming or going which reflects our experience of God - sometimes He feels close or far away even though He is always with us. 

We used sheer fabrics to reference a Presence or Spirit, something not concrete.The lights on the ground caused the cube to glow, emphasizing an 'other worldly' aspect. Melissa wasn't able to find fabric wide enough for one side of the cube, so she pieced fabric together which became a feature instead of a defect. Her design was inspired by Korean Pojagi quilting and used large seam allowances and flat felled seams to emphasize the patchwork. 

We were hoping the congregation would feel the presence of the Cube even though it was not in constant view. With the Cube floating just above the seats, we wanted it to be a physical Presence that feels both there and not.