The Faile Temple

As many of you know, I went to Lisbon, Portugal this last month to view my husband Patrick's (one of the two Patrick's of Faile) monumental sculpture project. The work is titled "Temple" and it quite possibly is the most amazing piece of art I've ever seen (said with a slight bias, of course).

The Temple project has been two years in the making. It is made up of huge ceramic relief sculptures, cast iron gates, marble sculptures, mosaics, not to mention the 1000's of tiles placed on the interior and exterior walls of this piece. Every single element in this sculpture was custom made and thoughtfully considered. Everything. So much went into this project. The structure itself is made to look like a ruin that has been blasted open to show the hidden beauty that rests inside. And once you're inside, you're blown away by the layers upon layers of detail within the mosaics, the spinning prayer wheels, the marble scuba horse fountain, and well, everything. Every detail was above and beyond breathtaking.

It was a lot of fun to hang out around and in the temple. Tourists would walk up to it with their travel books trying to figure out what was this "thing" they were looking at, old men and their wives would stare in awe at the level of detail in the ceramic and mosaic pieces, while children would run through and speedily spin the prayer wheels. The temple was built and designed for this specific site, Praça dos Restauradores Square, in the heart of Lisbon. What was so impressive is that it felt like it belonged there and had been a part of the city's history for hundreds of years. It was so delicately considered for it's location. It was and is perfect.

As you can tell, I'm incredibly proud of my husband and his partner. Patrick and I started dating 10 years ago this Fall and to witness the progression of his work to this point is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

To view and read more about Faile's Temple, click here.

photos c/o faile