Ark/Icon from Gateway installation

When Ark/Icon was shown at the Fisher Gallery in 1992, it was physically entered through and beyond a wooden gate; it was part of a larger Gateway sanctuary installation in the exhibition "Forbidden Entry." In this, the principal piece, natural wood borders a window-like frame that lures viewers into an unknown world beyond the white wall. The beams and arch encase a plaster-filled surface with three-level sunk-relief steps in the center. Common materials here create an eerily meditative effect. To what level does that meditation reach, and what place does Ark/Icon take part in this meditation? Does it create, or does it destroy?