Pulse, September 2002
Clea Felien
Franconia Sculpture Park is a constantly changing landscape of contemporary art. With more than 60 pieces on display at any given time, there is much to see. Environmental pieces, new interpretations of billboards, houses, helmets, stone, wood, steel — it’s all there. This is a family friendly place. Bring the kids and bring the dog. There is a “don’t touch” policy, and although parental supervision is necessary, there are many interactive pieces, sculpture you can go into, sit on top of, walk underneath and around. There are pathways carved out of tall prairie grass and wild flowers. All this is great for letting your kids run around until they are exhausted. They can pass out during the car ride home, giving you 45 minutes of peace.
John Hock, the artistic director, calls himself the head dreamer. A booming voice and a big heart, Hock is constantly supervising projects, helping the artists and moving monumental sculptures with cranes and pickup trucks. He rearranges two- to three-story works of art like people rearrange furniture. He picks them up like chess pieces. Things are constantly moving. Pieces are not meant to stay here forever. Most become parts of traveling exhibitions and some are relocated to a permanent home. The landscape of the park is constantly changing. Hock has created a home for artists. They come from all over the world to this artist commune. Heavily funded by the Jerome foundation, Franconia Sculpture Park provides residencies for about 10 Jerome grant recipients and interns. The grant includes room, board and art materials. Housing is in Hock’s old house (he’s since moved out) and also in the two trailer homes next to the house. The trailers have become art too; the graffiti artists have covered them.
Artists live and work on the premises for six weeks to six months. This summer there were 14 artists. Franconia is run very communally. There is a schedule for cooking and cleaning duties. If you walk into the living room at any given time and you might see four dogs lying on the couch, while the TV blares “Seinfeld,” two computers are used, the stereo plays Lucinda Williams singing (very loudly), “You took my joy and I want it back,” people make cooking noises, opera blasts from the garage and, of course, acetylene torches burn, hammers bang and torches weld. All this produces a wonderful din in which to create. It has a calming effect, similar to feeling alone on a busy New York street. There is a homey, dormitory feel to the place. Jam-packed with all the latest art magazines, the New York Times and the New Yorker, there is no shortage of information for the artist. After a long, hard day’s work, there are delicious home-cooked meals, including apple pie from the apple tree and salad from the garden. There are many parties—they even have a disco ball spinning on a regular basis. The night I was there, one of the interns played the piano beautifully while we discussed art and politics into the night. Franconia is the perfect place to create art.
The sculpture park is the end product. And it is considerable. Sixteen acres of art. All different interpretations, styles, reasons, materials. Rollin Marquettes’ “Subtract” (steel. 11’x6’x 44”) is an underground tanker. From the top we see vents and peepholes. These allow the viewer to look down into the sculpture. A long, narrow, gravelike entrance with an awkward descending stairway leads you inside the steel room all painted white and light gray. Inside the room is stillness, with an ominous echo when you talk, move or open the door. The stairs are accessible but not easy. Inside is a bridge that spans the entrance door to a back door that does not open. “Subtract” is open for all interpretations. Is it a bomb shelter, a quarantined area or a place to meditate?
In a field of wild flowers and prairie grasses, sculpture grows.
Graffiti artist Peyton invited artists Eros and Ewok to join him on “Teken,” a 20’x6’x6’ monolith. This gorgeous, three-sided graffiti painting is expertly painted in vivid reds, yellows, browns and greens.
Donald Myhre’s piece is comprised of steel, vinyl and video. An Airstream-like trailer with a round window sits alone in the field. Through the window we see a smaller Airstream trailer with a TV inside its window. The video that plays on the TV is of a woman holding a glass ball that contains a small bird. This tiny trailer sits on top of a table with a checkered tablecloth. A vinyl restaurant booth surrounds the table. There are three cheesy landscape paintings on the wall behind the booth. All three have been altered with some bizarre element. One has a death mask inserted into it. Another has a large doorbell attached to it. The third has a trailer poking out of it, diorama style.
Melvin R. Smith’s piece, “Faces of Color” (8’x5’2”) is made from fiberglass and steel. It looks like a Popsicle—car parts on a stick. Smith bolted together many pieces of a car body, mostly the tire wheel. Bright blue, black, red, green and white, these pieces form together to make a square face.
There is a stack of bedsprings called “Dancing Mattresses” by Sue Kosmalski. These springs come with a motor to make them bounce, so we hear the wonderfully familiar creak.
“Eve,” a white-painted wooden sculpture by Todd McGrain is of a duck gracefully forming.
Su Chen Hung’s self portrait in rocks is 5 feet, 1/32 inch in height and 48 feet long. The height is increased by about 6 inches from rock to rock, until the largest boulder, which is 5’ 1/32”, her actual height.
Adam Eig’s piece, “Golden Apple, Silver Tree” (39’ x 9’) is a large bamboo-like stalk of rusted steel that soars into the sky, then arches and splits into two wings, like a bird in flight.
Cindy Tower’s “Baltic” (10’ 6” x 9’ x 19’ 6”) is a pyramid of logs. These are stacked on top of each other with bark left on. Where branches have been sawed off, the wood is painted yellow and red. Tennis balls are attached mostly at the top and painted white and red. The piece has a colorful carnival outdoors effect.
Tamsie Ringler’s “Land of Eros” unites an ’87 Mercury Sable with an ’88 Chevy Corsica with gold leaf. It is very sexy, one car mounts the other, scuffed up and rusted on the outside, inside beautifully gold leafed with KQRS blaring loud sophomoric rock and roll. Definite make-out music.
Mark McLeod’s “Soon” (20’ x 6’ x 2’) is a large car seat that sits 20 feet high on huge poles with what looks to be a very long wind chime hanging from the bottom of the seat. The piece seems to waiting—as if something will happen “soon.”
Barbara Andrus’ “Three Spheres” are wooden crosses, which form an armature for a web of branches that sphere around the cross. This sculpture has a beautiful meditative quality.
Amy Toscani’s “Cephalopod” (26’ x 19’ x 17’), a red helmet on steel octopus legs, gazes serenely at the field of art spread out beneath its curly legs. Placed in the corner, it overlooks the whole field.
The most moving piece in the park is by Michael Richards, FSP/Jerome Grant Recipient for 2000. Three fiberglass casts of his body wear a WWII flight suit. These figures sit on the ground mid-fall, as if he will soon fall lying flat. The three figures have their palms up and legs akimbo. All three figures sit in a circle facing out. In the center is a target, with black, burnt-looking sand around it. From the bench facing the piece we see the figures from the front, the right profile and the left profile. The vulnerability or humanness of the figures is heightened by their closed eyes, their bowed heads and the belts around their waists—cinched a little too tight.
The piece is breathtaking. Richards, throughout his career, has done much of his work about the airmen of WWII from Tuskegee. Other pieces include his self-portrait in a flight suit with airplanes stabbing him. The piece, “Are you down?” is part of this series. Michael Richards was becoming well known. His work is powerful and always poignant — but not so much as it is today. Richards was working as an artist in residence in the World Trade Center towers on the 90th floor on Sept. 11 and he is still missing.
All great art predicts the future and exposes hidden truths. Artists, in delving into the creative process, go for the unknown. What will be, not what is. Artists work with and against society to find a deeper meaning or a hidden clue. Then they try to share it with the audience, understanding and criticizing and helping us to understand beyond our grasp. A truly great work of art inspires us to think, to feel. It predicts society’s twists and turns with politics and cultural affectations. Artists look for the warning signs of things to come. If you pay attention, they are there. Never has an artist so eloquently and succinctly predicted a tragedy, and the world’s response to it. “Are you down?” is what we keep asking about what happened to more than 5,000 people on Sept. 11. Thank you Michael Richards.
The Franconia Sculpture Park is located in Shafer, Minn. at 29815 Unity Ave. Take Interstate 35 to exit 132. Take Route 8 toward Taylors Falls. FSP is 19 miles out on the right hand side of the road on the corner of Unity Avenue and Route 8.
Franconia Sculpture Park hosts the FSP Gala Art and Artist Celebration, 3rd Annual Eye and Ear Festival on Sept. 22 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The event celebrates the 2001 Jerome grant recipients.