Not just a pile of sticks:
Dougherty Artwork Coming Soon

No, UC isn't planning to burn a big bonfire or a witch at the stake. The hundreds of tree saplings piled outside Blegen Library will soon become an organic sculpture, but no one knows for sure what it will look like.

A mystery it will remain, until sculptor Patrick Dougherty returns to campus April 4-19 to create the final piece, working over two weeks. Each day, a team of students and Facilities Management workers will help him, working from scaffolding supplied by Messer Construction.

Dougherty is a Chapel Hill, N.C.-based artist who has gained an international reputation for his temporary sapling sculptures. He has created more than 120 pieces around the world. Each piece is made for a specific site and therefore becomes unique.

The idea of involving UC in a temporary sculpture as part of its rapidly growing public artworks program originated with Anne Timpano, director of galleries at the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning and curator of the university's Fine Arts Collection. "While we have been engaged in so many permanent installations, it is appropriate to also contemplate temporary sculpture installations that, by their variety of type and location, can contribute to engaging the UC community in discovery of and discussion about the public art on campus," says Timpano.

As soon as she thought of engaging, temporary art, Patrick Dougherty's name came to mind. "Sculptures that Patrick has created in the past have whirled their way through tree tops, masked the facades of buildings, danced along hillsides, waded through ponds, intertwined themselves down staircases, and, in many other ways, engaged themselves intimately with their surroundings," Timpano says.

Explains Len Thomas, the UC project manager for landscape design and construction who is helping to coordinate the installation of UC's newest public artwork: "The artist takes the branches or trunks and engages them in their surroundings. He creates works that use the surrounding environment in specific and sometimes whimsical ways."

Dougherty's exhibited works range from Cell Division at Savannah College of Art and Design to a work he created at the Weston Art Gallery in downtown Cincinnati in June 2000.

Timpano knew from working on one of Dougherty's previous commissions in 1989 that "his method of working would go a long way toward engaging the university community and fostering first curiosity, then interest, and finally enthusiasm about his work in particular and, hopefully, public sculpture in general."

To prepare for the final assembly of his UC-commissioned installation, Dougherty visited Cincinnati Feb. 18-20 to collect saplings with the help of DAAP students and Facilities Management workers. Dougherty usually does the collection of saplings and building of the sculpture all in one period, but at UC the process was split into segments. Getting the saplings before they sprouted leaves was crucial. The February collection date was also selected to maximize participation by sculpture students in a class taught by Linda Einfalt, associate professor of sculpture, and a class taught by graduate assistant Matt Myers, adds Timpano.

Willow and red maple saplings were pruned from two sites selected in consultation with the Cincinnati Urban Forestry Division and the Cincinnati Park Board, says Thomas. The willow came from a thicket in a vacant lot on Wilmer Avenue south of Lunken Airport, while the maples were pruned from a thicket at future park site on Wooster Pike.

The saplings were all cut off above the roots, so that the trees can rejuvenate, said Thomas, who has worked in landscape architecture, management and education for the past 27 years.

"The involvement of volunteers to assist in the collection of materials and the construction of the final work of art is a key aspect of the value of bringing this particular sculptor to our campus," says Timpano. " Such interaction provides those who participate with first-hand exposure to both the hard work and creativity that go into the piece"

The finished UC piece is expected to contain hundreds of saplings ranging in size from 2-3 inches in diameter and 15-20 feet in length to one-half inch in diameter and 4-6 feet in length. Dougherty says he uses the bigger ones to create an inner foundation, while smaller ones create the more detailed "exterior" design. The final sculpture will be displayed for one year.

Any students, faculty or staff interested in joining the team to work on the sculpture may call Anne Timpano at (513) 556-3210. More information about the artist and his previous work can be found on his web site at www.stickwork.net.

Previous works on exhibit.