Page 24 - C.A.L.L. #45 - Summer 2019

Way back in Issue #38 of C.A.L.L., in the summer of 2014, we published a piece on this ongoing
th
project by artist Francis Cape. Lo and behold, in the latest newsletter of Ganas (dated 24 May
2019), it seems that the community in Staten Island has agreed to participate too.

WE SIT ON THE SAME BENCH

Artist Francis Cape approached Ganas a few months ago about participating in his ongoing

project entitled “Utopian Benches”. It featured benches — as representations of dialogue
and sharing experience — from historical and present-day communities that he faithfully

reproduced or, in the case of the bench from Twin Oaks, was built by a community member.
We happily accepted his invitation. I gave Francis a tour of all the benches of Ganas
community, indoors

and out, and told him
everything I knew

about them. He
selected one indoor
bench (an upholstered

bench in 139 front
hallway, no doubt

picked up on pick-ups
for the furniture
store, as most of our

furniture is), and took
detailed

measurements and
made drawings of it.
Back in his shop he

built a replica in the
same poplar finished

with tung oil he used
to build the other benches in the exhibit. In late April, Susan and I participated in a lively

discussion with Francis and about 20 of his interested and engaged friends about Ganas
community, while we all sat together on the benches arranged in a chapel of the Cathedral of
St. John the Divine in Manhattan. “A Gathering of Utopian Benches” is included in this awe-

inspiring setting in the larger exhibit “The Value of Sanctuary: Building a House Without
Walls”, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan until June 30. If you’re

interested I have the program booklets “we sit on the same bench” and “Sanctuary” for the
exhibits.

— Richard