Panya Clark Espinal

Covenant House, 1994, installation view

Covenant House, 1994, installation view

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, detail

Covenant House, 1994, exterior

Covenant House, 1994, exterior

Covenant House, 1994

Commission

stained glass mosaic, wood, architectural components

This entranceway installation was constructed to welcome residents into Covenant House, a shelter for street youth.

A series of stained glass mosaics uses the existing architecture of the building, with images that change as the viewer enters the building and climbs the stairs. Just inside the door, an exterior view of a sun rising against a night sky fills the transom window and extends to the ceiling. Climbing the stairs, visitors pass a cross-section of the exterior wall of the building, then “enter” the interior space where two “windows” depict scenes of a garden and an apple tree. At the top of the stairs are two small shelves, one displaying actual flowers and another containing a bowl of apples. The gap between the real and represented is explored in this piece, as things that are seen as ungraspable and seductive become manifested in real time and space.