World Cafe Live: Sphere of Music, Tower of Babble

Sphere of Music and Tower of Babble are interior murals created by artist Paul Santoleri in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The two murals form one image on the interior ”atrium” of the World Cafe Live, a venue sharing the WXPN radio station building on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus. Sphere of Music is upstairs, Tower of Babble is downstairs.

Artist statement:
The piece is in two parts, one at the top of the stairs the other down on the ground floor outside of the auditorium. The main image in both [murals] is a great tree, with stories wrapped around the base and through the branches… these are stories like those I hear in the music on WXPN… stories that make the frames for the music.

The upper wall represents a world of color, a place where the music of the spheres passes through the thick branches that are patterned to represent the elements of earth air, fire, water and culture and the branches are bursting through a surface of crystal pyrite and malachite. In the treetops are patterns taken from tiles and stained glass that adorned the old WXPN home (some will be done in stained glass) and, in the center, is a great Navajo feathered circle, representing change and movement.

Downstairs, the images will have reduced color, alluding to a less ethereal world, and the stories relate more to the stuff of people: billboards and buildings, lovers and radio towers; car parking lots and winding highways all set under the great roots of the paulownia or empress tree, one symbol of a transplant from another continent (China) that thrives here in our mishmash of cultures, pertinent for a world cafe, (paulownia trees also circle the fountain on Philadelphia’s Logan Circle). Instruments of music are part of the skyline in this lower city, with quotes from our own (real) skyline. The lower city will be somewhat of a carnival affair.

Location Note: These interior murals may not always be accessible for public viewing.