Stand Up Inspiration: More Writer's Rooms and Phoenixes in Flight

Colson Whitehead in his West Village duplex apartment. Photo by Magnus Unnar.

T, The New York Times style magazine, has more writer's rooms. In case you didn't know, I have a thing or two for writers and the rooms where they work. These rooms along with the artist Xu Bing, below, are today's Stand Up Inspiration.

Andrew Burton/Getty Images via The New York Times 

Using discarded materials from a high rise construction site in China, conceptual artist Xu Bing has meticulously fashioned two phoenixes that appear to be taking flight inside the The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City.

They look absolutely breathtaking and I am so lucky to live a 20 minute subway ride away from the cathedral. I can't wait to see the pair, Feng and Huang, as Mr. Bing has described them as representing "...unrealized hopes and dreams." More photos of the pair, in 2012, when they were at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA.

Being on a global hunt for ways in which waste is turned into glorious things is one of the best parts of my job as a blogger of material culture. Then, when it turns out the groovy art installation is so close by - I'm so happy I can't bear it.

The exhibition opens on March 1. If you live in New York, send me a note, we'll go together and then maybe we hit the famous Hungarian Pastry Shop across the street.