Sculpture at Evergreen 2008
Evergreen Museum & Library's fifth biennial outdoor sculpture exhibition,
May 4, through Sept. 28.
4545 North Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21210
410-516-0341 evergreenmuseum@jhu.edu
9 a.m. to dusk
Monday through Friday
noon to dusk
Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.
Presenting 10 new works of temporary sculpture, created by contemporary artists from across the United States in response to the property's 150-year history, diverse collections of art and literature, and natural and architectural environments.
Guest curated by Andrea Pollan, an independent curator, art dealer, consultant, appraiser and writer. She is founder and director of Curator's Office, a curatorial office for offsite exhibitions and projects, located in Washington, D.C.
Info from website:
Works on View
Shooting Electrons, by Mike Womack (New York)
Red, green, and blue outdoor lighting reinvigorates the iconic minimalist linear cube with 21st-century optical concerns, prompting questions of how we receive information, both visually and intellectually. On another level, the sculpture is reminiscent of how the original 1858 Evergreen mansion was enveloped by successive additions, making what was "old" new once more.
Animal Shrine, by Rebecca Herman and Mark Shoffner (New York)
The structure of this contemplative space, consisting of wood and willow branches, elicits a chain of visual and sculptural associations, including traditional Japanese shrine architecture, Evergreen's collection of Japanese art, and temporary shelters made by animals and roaming tribes. The inside yields a delightful surprise as the roof is decorated with motifs similar to ones stenciled in the museum's Lèon Bakst-designed theatre.
Hideouts, by J Hill (Houston)
These Sioux tipi, hand-crafted with help from residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, provide a pointed architectural contrast between the historic edifices built along the Eastern seaboard and the nomadic structures of the American West. Evergreen was purchased in 1878 by B&O Railroad baron John Work Garrett for his son, and the temporary placement of tipis on the grounds of a railroad family suggests a sort of political and aesthetic remuneration.
Green Golly, by Sharon Engelstein (Houston)
This 15-foot-tall fluorescent green inflatable sculpture is the ultimate artistic interloper, wedged amidst the soaring columns of Evergreen's front portico. Its soft, puffy blobs compete with the neo-classical lines of the columns, resulting in a visual absurdity and a collision of historic and pop cultural form.
Ephemerally Everchanging Evergreen, by Wee Lit Tan (Chicago)
A fluorescent yet translucent lattice blanket made of fused acrylic strips creates an illusionistic, architectural alteration on a corner of Evergreen's North Wing. Resembling what a computer graphics engineer would see on a computer monitor, the installation renders the familiar somewhat alien and toys with the basic concept of computer graphics by giving them actual physical form.
The Hammer, by Jeannine Harkleroad (Richmond, Va.)
This installation brings the indoors outside through the intermediary of an all-weather LCD television. Using the conventions of cinema, the video becomes a narrative extension of the sculpture and performers in the artist's studio.
Rhizome, Hyungsub Shin (New York)
Sheaves of multi-colored electrical wires are pieced together on a grid- like trellis that once supported wisteria vines, creating extensions that resemble flowering nerve cells. The resulting complex network of dendritic forms mimics nature through man-made means. Like a rhizome, each component appears to generate the next without a centralizing hierarchy.
Solar Cell, Brian Balderston (New York)
This work suggests the commodification of a natural experience for the purpose of vanity. A manufactured solar-powered tanning enclosure achieves the desired elements of a real natural experience without the perceived inconveniences. The structure also alludes to the one-time existence of a network of sun-fed conservatories at Evergreen.
Sky Glow, Michele Kong (Lewisburg, Pa., and New York)
A series of fragile ladders straddle a branch of the Stoney Run tributary, but clearly deny their own function, being too fragile to traverse and, positioned as they are, unscalable. Covered with a mermaid skin of reflective mirrored circlets, this lyrical composition evokes the illusion of sky beneath our feet, or heaven on earth.
Lighthouse, Beheaded, by Adam Frelin (Troy, N.Y.)
This work, a broken lighthouse, alludes to the use of architectural follies in landscape design, as well as Baltimore's shipping port status. The unmoored lighthouse's beacon-like function is clearly thrown into question, suggesting a rupture of reason, logic and purpose.
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