Stillness and Light: The Silent Eloquence of Shaker Architecture
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Shaker buildings have long been admired for their simplicity of design and sturdy craftsmanship, with form always following function. Over the years, their distinctive physical characteristics have invited as much study as imitation. Their clean, unadorned lines have been said to reflect core Shaker beliefs such as honesty, integrity, purity, and perfection. In this book, Henry Plummer focuses on the use of natural light in Shaker architecture, noting that Shaker builders manipulated light not only for practical reasons of illumination but also to sculpt a deliberately spiritual, visual presence within their space. Stillness and Light celebrates this subtly beautiful aspect of Shaker innovation and construction, captured in more than 100 stunning photographs.
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Stillness and Light - Henry Plummer
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INTRODUCTION SHAKER LIGHT ~ BUILDING A STATE OF GRACE
The magnificent craftsmanship of the Shakers, who for two centuries were America's most successful utopian society, gave visible form to a firm belief that usefulness and holiness are one and the same. There was no separation between practical and sacred values in this evangelical sect, which reached its height in 1840 with nearly six thousand members in eighteen communities, set in rural and isolated locations from Maine to Kentucky.¹ Perhaps the purest expression of their unique way of living, in which down-to-earth common sense is permeated with rigorous faith, is the exquisite functional beauty of their architecture. A twofold striving for perfection, epitomized in the Shaker maxim, put your hands to work and your hearts to God,
was manifested in everything they built—from a door to a window, a stair to a railing, a wall to a roof. Underlying this double vision was a desire to live in two different worlds—spiritual and natural—at the same time, and with equal intensity, for as Shakers believed, heaven and earth are threads of one loom.
²
Beyond its solid outer form, as simple and handsome as it is, Shaker architecture displays another, more elusive dimension where utility and theology merge—a pragmatic, yet also sublime treatment of natural light. Although Shakers themselves were reticent about explaining this preoccupation, their buildings exhibit a love and care for managing light that is unique in American architecture.³ This mastery ranged from maximizing the penetration of daylight into buildings, to ethereal effects of atmosphere conducive to the spiritual life, suggesting architectural concerns that go well beyond the physical world.
While good natural lighting was beneficial for everyday tasks, such as working and cleaning, the other, undoubtedly more profound source of Shaker passion for natural light was religious. Despite a contemporary bias toward emphasizing the material culture and social mores of Shakers, it must be kept in mind that Shaker ambitions were, at their core, divine rather than material or social.⁴ Spirit rather than matter was of the essence. The appealing images of Shaker forms that meet our rational eyes today—superbly crafted boxes and chairs, walls and cabinets, floors and stairs—belie a far deeper purpose, and spiritual intent, which has nothing to do with material aesthetics or adoration. Modeling their ways after Christ, Shakers were engaged, rather, in a constant attempt to cast off possessions and become free of objects, stripping away the artificial wrappings of worldly culture, in order to get back to an ultimate state of