At St Patrick’s Cathedral, the largest permanent artwork commisioned in its 146-year history is a plea for acceptance and community at a difficult time
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n the neo-gothic splendor of New York’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, a throng of today’s immigrants – mostly Latino, Asian, and Black – pause on a hillside slope with their humble sacks and bags. A man in a T-shirt cradles an infant, a kid in sneakers sits glumly in the foreground. Overhead in the towering clouds, the Lamb of God stands on a white altar amid the clustering gleam of golden pendulous stripes evoking the presence of God.
The scene, humane and magnificent, is a part of what is perhaps the most significant new piece of public art in today’s riven America.
Titled What’s So Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding (after the Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello song), the 25ft-tall multi-part mural by New York artist Adam Cvijanovic celebrates the church and city’s tradition of welcoming immigrants. In this particular time of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents dragging people off the streets, it constitutes a prodigious rallying cry – a luminous affirmation of empathy and solidarity.
