24301 El Toro Road, Laguna Woods, CA 92637

1968

William L. Pereira & Associates

Plaster cement

Unknown

Artist's fee unknown. $800,000 total building costs.

Geneva Presbyterian Church

Extant, in situ. Seemingly very good.

TVS digital records.

William L. Pereira's only religious building, the Geneva Presbyterian Church is a series of intersecting triangular and trapezoid forms that, in profile, might be describing the trajectory of a rocket launch. Other than its upward thrust and a single, discreet, stained-glass window, the smooth-walled structure offers few traditional indicators of its function. In this context, Van Sant’s relief sculptures, operate as signifiers for the Christian narrative of redemption and as way finders.

In a likely nod to the largely Scottish roots of US Presbyterian tradition, Van Sant’s Celtic cross is a simplified version of the 9th century St. Martin's High Cross of Iona, the site at which the ancient Kings of Scotland are buried.

The Tree of Life was “among the symbols used in Biblical times to express the covenant relationship between God and his people.” [1] Van Sant also employed the symbol for a 1959 mural at San Marino Congregational Church.

“Forming a continuous ‘picture’ through the walls,” the Geneva Tree of Life appears to grow up and through the concrete building, for the same geometric trunk and branch forms occur in the same location on either side of the wall. [2] The only difference being that the exterior tree was made using relief sculpture, which projects out from the background wall; while the interior tree was made as a sunken relief, which sits below the level of the surrounding surface.

One of Van Sant’s most abstracted works, The Last Supper resembles a set of hieroglyphs that require decoding. The relief is almost symmetrical. At its center stands a seven-sided shape, which is flanked by two clusters of largely columnar shapes.  They stand apart from but are oriented toward the central form. All shapes occupy the same ground line.

Although the shapes lack defining features, including heads and hands, for viewers familiar with Christian iconography, the central shape is recognizable as a representation of Jesus Christ, who faces out from the scene with arms outstretched, accompanied by his twelve disciples.

In addition to its narrative function, the line of body-like forms indicates the direction to walk to enter the Church. Something that is not immediately visible when visitors approach the building from the parking lot.

In a 2008 interview with Jo Lauria, Tom Van Sant stated that he initiated his intaglio technique of “form cut into a surface, as opposed to coming out from a surface” on Indigenous Inhabitants (1968). [3] However, it seems likely that the interior wall of Tree of Life represents at least a step on the way to Van Sant’s signature process, if not the first time he brought it to professional fruition.

[1] Rev. Bertrand V. Crist, The Tree of Life Mural, a short text written c. 1960 for the parish about Van Sant’s mural the Tree of Life (1959) at San Marino Congregational Church, San Marino, California.

[2] Independent Press Telegram, August 24, 1968, Pg. 14, Long Beach, California, US.

[3] Jo Lauria, “Oral history interview with Tom Van Sant, 2008 August 14-September 10,”Smithsonian Institute, Archives of American Art,