"We are the Things of Ghosts" is a meditation on life and death, said Lindsey Barlag Thornton. View Full Caption Lindsey Barlag Thornton

JEFFERSON PARK — An art piece designed to be a meditation on life, death and the traces people leave throughout our lives will be performed at the Copernicus Center at 8 p.m. Nov. 17-19.

"We are the Things of Ghosts" by Lindsey Barlag Thornton, a Jefferson Park resident, will have its first performance in the former Gateway Theatre at the center, 5216 W. Lawrence Ave.

In addition to Thornton, whose husband Michael Patrick Thornton founded Jefferson Park's Gift Theatre, the one-hour piece will be performed by Alexis Atwill, Alison Auwerda, Mac Gerber and Tongyu Zhao.

The four performers will investigate death, as well as its bodily and metaphysical implications, through movement, text, visual imagery and song, Thornton said.

The work, originally developed by Thornton as part of her studies at the School of the Art Institute Chicago, was inspired by Skeeter Davis, Carl Sagan and Albert Einstein, she said.

The piece is designed to take viewers "on a journey through sound and silence and image from the grave to the starry heavens of outer space,” Thornton said.

Tickets are $15.

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