A Performance Installation in collaboration with Hälis Rünk Sunday, May 5th, 2024, at 2:00 pm Grace Church Cathedral, Charleston, South Carolina

Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts (FSA) presents Feeling Stained Glass, an immersive performance installation by acclaimed international artist Nezaket Ekici. Activating the sanctuary space of Grace Church Cathedral, Ekici invites opera singer Hälis Rünk to join her in creating a site-specific, meditative performance in the context of a sacred space. Inspired by the rich spiritual ambiance and architectural heritage of Grace Church Cathedral, Ekici pays tribute to the sanctuary’s iconography, highlighting its stunning stained-glass windows, intricate needlepoint kneelers, and more. Ekici wondered what it would be like to combine visual and aural liturgical elements from the church into something new. She reimagined the stained glass windows as a floor installation incorporating photographs alongside real objects depicted in the glass, which she and Rünk animate through choreographed movements and vocals. In addition to conceptualizing and building the installation, Ekici designed and made costumes for this performance. We witness the documentation of her performance projected on the same textile used to create her costumes in the studio closet, a confessional booth of sorts. Echoing aesthetic and spiritual traditions including Christian, Islamic, and Jewish mysticism, as well as Zen Buddhism, Feeling Stained Glass is a contemplative convergence of visual art and music, celebrating interfaith and spiritually oriented practices. In this studio, you can see two mid-process performance works envisioned by Nezaket Ekici during her residency in Charleston. Inside the studio, we observe the various stages of her artistic process for creating and performing “Feeling Stained Glass.” Inspired by the rich spiritual ambiance and architectural heritage of Grace Church Cathedral, Ekici pays tribute to the sanctuary’s iconography, highlighting its stunning stained-glass windows and intricate needlepoint kneelers. On the studio walls, we encounter her perspective “windows” using multicolored tape. Using these “window” templates, Ekici reimagines the cathedral’s stained glass windows as a two-dimensional floor graphic incorporating photographs alongside real objects depicted in the glass. In her live performance at Grace Church Cathedral on May 5th, 2024, Ekici activated the sanctuary space by creating a site-specific, meditative performance with opera singer Hälis Rünk. In addition to conceptualizing and building the installation, Ekici designed and made costumes for this performance out of canvas, which we see hanging in the studio. Text: Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts (FSA), Charleston South Carolina

Photos of glass mosaics and embroidered kneeling benches, of Grace Church Cathedral, water, glass bowl, paper, candle, wool thread, roses, book

1 h 10 min

Produced by Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts (FSA), Charleston South Carolina Special Thanks to FSA’s Collaborating Partners: Grace Church Cathedral, Hälis Rünk (Vocalist), Paul Chenes (Photographer), David Keller (Videographer), Andreas Dammertz, Yifat Bezalel, Sandra Brett, Leesa Fanning