St Patrick's Cathedral

Light | The Sublime

  

Walking into the neo gothic cathedral of St Patrick, I feel a sense of relief and calming to my body. Not a religious believer myself, I feel a different connection to the church, than one that is a religious believer or have been brought up in a religious background. I have never been to a church for any type of ceremony or mass. Maybe this is the reason, when I do visit a church it does bring a sense of relief and calming to my body, being something I very rarely do and rarely have time to sit and relax.

 The calming of the warm Yellow light beaming through the high stained glass windows makes one feel relaxed and welcomed. A place where you can forget about the busy street outside and let your mind rest. When inside I felt my mind switching off, a sensation that rarely occurs in my day to day life.

When walking around the church, I came upon a man restoring a section of the tiles, piece by piece he hammered them into the ground, like a jigsaw puzzle.

For me the amazing patters on the tiles draws my attention to the middle of the church, where the priest sits at the altar.

James Turrell describes, “ My material is light, which I use to work the medium of perception”.  When applying this method to myself I found that my perception of outside did change. I know longer had thoughts of the outside world, I was completely engaged with the interior that I was in. The beaming light shining down on the interior of the church, A metaphor for “god” looking down on those who have entered his “house”. The warm yellow interior making one feel welcomed into “gods house” compared to the cold blues and purples at the entrance and exit, somewhat preparing one for the outside world again.