Today’s Photo Friday theme is Metal, which gives me an excuse to post this picture of Kitty Wales’ Pine Sharks, one of several images from an April visit to the DeCordova Sculpture Park which I posted to Flickr but never blogged.
Of all the ingenious, odd, and downright weird works at the DeCordova, Pine Sharks is probably my favorite. I love its fishily fluid lines; I love the juxtaposition of rusted metal, pine boughs, and blue sky; and I love the irony that a sculpture of sharks was conceived by an artist named Wales. (In checking out Kitty Wales’ website, I realize that I’d seen another of her installations, Canis Ex Machina, when it was featured in an indoor exhibition at the DeCordova Museum in 2006.) Only at a place like the DeCordova can you be surprised and delighted by the possibility of airborne fish fashioned from abandoned appliances.
It is exactly this element of surprise that I crave in any individual art work or exhibition. When I go to a sculpture park or museum, I’m looking to have my worldview widened. Even if I don’t “understand” an especially bizarre piece of art–and the DeCordova always features some head-scratching doozies–what I love about a good museum is the way you walk away from it feeling like you’ve seen the world, at least for a while, through someone else’s eyes. I would have never dreamed of seeing sharks swimming overhead among pine trees, backlit by sky; I would have never dreamed of seeing rusted metal transformed into fish. Having visited Wales’ vision of a pine forest patrolled by piscine predators, though, it now seems perfectly right and natural to imagine metallic sharks circling the sky.
Click here for the complete photo-set from my April visit to the DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park, including several images of the mysterious J in action.
Jun 5, 2009 at 7:30 am
What fun! Thanks for sharing!
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Jun 5, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Wonderful photos!
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Jun 6, 2009 at 5:13 am
just wonderful – i would love to see this! thanks for letting me through your camera lens.
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Jun 6, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Your photos have captured the magic of the artist’s concept.
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Jun 7, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Wow…this is amazing…where in Massachusettes is this?
You might be interested in Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey, though admittedly nothing there compares to the ingenious of this Pine Sharks.
http://davethenovelist.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/a-visit-to-grounds-for-sculpture/
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Jun 8, 2009 at 10:28 am
You take the most wonderful photos.
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Jun 8, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Thank you, everyone. I wish everyone could see this particular piece in person: it’s delightful.
Dave, the DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park is in Lincoln, MA, just outside of Boston and not far from Walden Pond in nearby Concord, MA.
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Jun 10, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Lorainne, awesome — thanks for the link with directions! I can picture myself plotting a trip in the near future 🙂
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Jun 10, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Strange sculture, mobile!
Good Photo Friday entry (metal)!
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Jun 30, 2009 at 11:52 pm
[…] Perhaps one of the least publicized threats to trees are sharks. That’s rights – sharks. I didn’t think there were many trees that would have to face a shark attack, but Lorianne at Hoarded Ordinaries shares some compelling evidence. […]
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Jul 2, 2009 at 7:23 am
great pictures. came here by way of Festival of Trees.
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Jul 17, 2009 at 10:44 am
very interesting. thanks for sharing!
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