Unanswered Prayers, Open-Ended Questions: Reflecting on the Sacred and the Profane in ALTER, a Recent Exhibition at Twelve Gates

“All I know is that I was created; not how, not why” ponders the narrator of video and installation artist Leila Weefur’s PLAY†PREY (2021). The phrase summarizes the complicated relationship between one’s self and one’s identity, the unifying theme of the diverse works included in ALTER, the most recent exhibition at Twelve Gates Arts in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood.