Tiresome Tabernacle
Tiresome Tabernacle, by Jay Critchley (2001). [Jay Critchley]
The remains of the Tabernacle in 2010. [Dunlap]
Looking straight up from within the Tabernacle ruin. [2010, Dunlap]
Text last updated on 10 January 2010 | The Tiresome Tabernacle was built by the artist Jay Critchley in 2001 not far from the new Wastewater Treatment Plant. A commentary on energy wastefulness and environmental recklessness, it consisted originally of an eight-foot stack of used car tires atop a five-foot platform in a sunken pit. The platform remains, as pictured in 2009, looking like a mysterious altar.
This is Critchley’s description from his Day Without Oil site:
“For years I passed by the discarded car tires that lined the dirt road around Clapp’s Pond where I cross country ski whenever snow appears in this Cape-tip wilderness. Used as barriers for dirt bikes buzzing close to the pond, bordering the Cape Cod National Seashore, the tires were spent, incongruous — tired. The trail winds up a dune to a flat clearing amidst scrub pine where there is an unexplainable sand pit in the ground.
“Before the Town of Provincetown decided to clean up the area and remove the tires, I was inspired to create the Tiresome Tabernacle — a tired planet in 2001. A circular platform was constructed on the floor of the pit and the 60-plus tires formed a spiraling pyramid on top. The space below the tires — open on the sides — was a place for meditation, rest and conversation. Weekly, throughout the summer, groups would visit for performances, readings and socializing.”
¶ Republished on 7 January 2024.