Local
Artist Chosen to Create Symbol For Religious Center
Arab- American News
DETROIT -- When visitors from around the world stop here at the new Father
Solanus Casey Center, built in memory of the patient and quiet man who began
the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in 1929, they’ll find the Arab and Muslim
community in Metro Detroit ably represented by one of the crucial pieces of
art that define the center.
On Saturday, December 7, the center was dedicated to commemorate Father
Solanus’ life of service. Father Solanus was a legendary Detroit priest
who spent his life helping the sick, homeless, hungry, and needy people in
Detroit and New York City. Some even believe that he possessed a power to
heal. He died in 1957 at age 86 and now is being considered for sainthood by
the Vatican. Casey is being considered for sainthood, which would make him
the first American-born man elevated to that status in the Catholic Church.
He is entombed in a chapel at St. Bonaventure Church, which underwent a
$13million renovation for the center connected to it. Private donations
financed the project.
The most intriguing aspect of the center is the use of artwork done by about
twenty internationally recognized artists to translate and communicate the
very principles of Father Solanus‘ message of tolerance, understanding,
appreciation, and helping others. These works of art are disseminated in
every part of the center. The architectural design and the artworks jointly
create a masterpiece in Detroit.
Michael Callan of the New York City Design Firm DMCD is the designer and the
artistic visionary of the project: "The natural beauty of a courtyard
garden is a starting point for pilgrims to the Solanus Casey Center, a place
to cleanse themselves of distractions, to begin to focus on the meaning of
their visit. Pilgrims enter the garden through an elegant wrought iron gate
that depicts the framework for God’s creations: the sun, the moon and the
stars. Some pilgrims might notice the garden’s Franciscan tradition, a
square open space surrounded by a covered walkway.” Along the
pathway are positioned, in sequence, seven dramatic sculptures, each
expressed in the artistic style of a different culture that has some
relationship to the neighborhood served by the Capuchin community at St.
Bonaventure’s, and each highlighting one of the phrases of St. Francis’s
prayer of celebration for God’s creation, "Canticle to Brother
Sun."
The first sculptured piece praising Brother Sun is a functioning stainless
steel sundial; the canticle’s lines in both German and English are etched
onto a plaque nearby. Sister Moon is a more abstract piece, one that
captures the various phases of the moon. Here the prayer’s stanza is in
English and Spanish. Brother Fire is a wild explosion of painted steel
shapes that burst from the earth. The prayer appears in Hebrew and English. Brother Wind, created by an African-American artist, reflects African
symbols. Here the plaque is in Swahili and English.
Sister Water, the creation of local Arabic-Islamic artist
Dr. Hashim Al-Tawil, is a brilliantly colored ceramic pillar that depicts
the four rivers of Paradise and incorporates ancient Arabic calligraphy of
verses from the Holy Qur’an. The plaque carries the canticle stanza in
Arabic and English. Sister Earth was created by a Native-American artist.
The prayer stanza here is in Dakota and English. The last piece, from an
Irish artist, praises Sister Bodily Death. The sequence of canticle icons in
the garden serves several purposes. First, it highlights a beautiful prayer
of Saint Francis that helps to focus attention on the natural world as a
prelude to the spiritual world. Second, it provides an appropriate and
attractive artistic statement of the unity of cultures that share the same
natural world, and the same cycles of life, death and rebirth. Third, it
celebrates the diverse cultural communities in Detroit that look to St.
Bonaventures for solace and service. Fourth, it reminds all of us of the
Capuchin heritage of reverence for the natural world and for the diversity
of cultural expression. And finally, the mix of art and text foreshadows the
experiences to come inside the Center itself."
Hashim Al-Tawil’s concept was chosen to represent the Arab-Muslim
community in Detroit through the concept of "Sister Water". An
internationally recognized artist, Dr. Hashim Al-Tawil is the Cultural
Coordinatorat (ACC), and an adjunct professor of Islamic art and
architecture at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, OCC, and Henry Ford
Community College teaching courses in the history and culture of Arabic-
Islamic civilization.
About this latest commission Dr. Al-Tawil explains: "The work is a
modern minimal form in the shape of a cube about 5 feet tall and 2 feet
wide. It is an outdoor ceramic sculpture done in the traditional
Arabic-Islamic glazed tile technique. The idea of the work is based on the
definition of water in Arabic-Islamic tradition; the four rivers of Aden
mentioned in the Torah (Old Testament) and represented in the Qur’an by
the four rivers of Paradise, Sura 47: 15. The four rivers are symbolized by
the four vertical deep blue banners running down from all four sides of the
monument with verses from the Qur’an. The horizontal turquoise banners
carry verses from the Qur’an that refer to or indicate "Water"
as an essential creation of God and the source and cause for maintaining and
conditioning life. Other traditional and stylistic motifs are employed to
complement the overall design. Says Dr. Al-Tawil: “This is a splendid
project that touches upon the human decency and communicates passing through
barriers of colors, languages, ethnicities, and cultures in a common
language that is understood by all."
