The Virgin Mary at Gallow Green

While the weather was still nice, my friends and I decided to get brunch at a restaurant called Gallow Green. Gallow Green is located in Chelsea, on top of the McKittrick Hotel. I had been there before to see the immersive performance piece Sleep No More, the main attraction of the McKittrick Hotel, and my ticket to see the play allowed a friend and I to get post-show food at their rooftop restaurant. Sleep No More is an immersive experience in that every part of the performance space has objects to be touched, rooms to be explored, and stories to be experienced. The sense of mystery and discovery imparted by the show itself extends throughout the building where it takes place. The rooftop restaurant Gallow Green is designed to look like an outdoor space, and as such it has hidden artifacts amongst its foliage. It was in these little green grottoes that I found a small statue of the Virgin Mary, and I was reminded of the connection between religious objects, religious experiences, and nature.

The Virgin Mary tucked into the corner is small, but placed within its own little altar of an overturned crate and a small bunch of flowers. It is made out of worn stone, and looks as if it was weathered out of a larger rock by forces of nature. Its inclusion in the space added to the feeling that one had entered into a sort of clearing in a forest. She seemed a natural part of the landscape of the restaurant, and finding her felt like being included into a private moment.

I was reminded of her when we read Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums. In section 19 of the book, Kerouac’s protagonist Ray Smith, returns to his home in North Carolina to find his little section of nature to meditate in. Kerouac writes, “In [the forest], the previous spring, I’d worn out a little path going to meditate under a favorite baby pine… I always bowed there and clasped my hands and thanked Avalokitesvara for the privilege of the wood,” (Kerouac 134). Ray’s retreat into nature and seclusion in order to pray and meditate echoes the placement of the little Virgin Mary. Ray goes to a quiet space removed from others in order to meditate, and the Virgin Mary I found was set apart from the restaurant itself. Nature offers Ray a retreat from his friends and family and allows him to be introspective and appreciate the beauty around him. I took a moment to stand with the little statue and appreciate the beautiful green space around me. I found that, despite the contrived nature of the space, being in a space that attempts to replicate the beauty of the natural world was soothing, similar to way that actually being in nature can be soothing. It is that soothing aspect that Ray Smith searches for, and spends the entire book in pursuit of and it is only in nature that he is able to find it.

While the nature at Gallow Green is manufactured, it is telling that the creators of the environment included a religious figure to supplement their creation of an outdoor space. Nature is conducive to religious experience because of the way that it allows for a person to be apart from the rest of society. Ray Smith in The Dharma Bums retreats into nature in order to connect with the world on a spiritual level. His travels situate him amongst people and apart from them, and Gallow Green mimics that aspect by providing small corners throughout the restaurant. The quiet that can be offered by natural spaces (whether or not they are truly natural) is something that people desire, whether they are trying to escape from urban life or if they are trying to find peace with the world. The solace offered by nature is linked to the solace offered by religion and spirituality. The inclusion of the little Virgin Mary in the restaurant brings that solace to the space and Ray’s actions in The Dharma Bums echo that pursuit and attainment of solace.

Gallow Green