Memory of a Sphere

by Sparrow, June 29, 2011

“We wanted to take art outside of our own four walls,” says Carinda Swann, director of the Garrison Art Center. She is speaking of “Current,” the center’s sixth survey of contemporary sculpture, at Boscobel in Garrison. The show runs until October 10.

Completed in 1808, Boscobel has one of the great Hudson River views—looking out on West Point and Constitution Island. Its house is considered a premier example of Federal architecture. The grounds comprise 45 acres. “A lot of people questioned it initially: ‘What do you mean you’re going to put modern sculpture on the grounds of Boscobel?’ But it’s been a happy marriage. People love it,” observes Swann.

Walking through Boscobel’s lawns and gardens, visitors stumble upon artworks unexpectedly, as if upon trysting lovers. Serendipity improves art; in a sense, serendipity is art.

“For the artists in our show, it’s fantastic exposure, because probably 40,000 to 50,000 people come through there in the summer,” notes Swann.

As a nod to the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, which is held at Boscobel, Judy Sigunick created two ceramic portraits of Shakespearean heroes: Viola and Cesario from "Twelfth Night." In fact, the two characters are one: Viola adopts the guise of a boy, and the name Cesario, after being shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria. “They stand and welcome people as they enter the rose garden,” explains Swann.

Al Landzberg’s Double Cee is a minimal steel work that—as the title hints—looks like two letter Cs joined together. Both ends are pointed, suggesting the horns of a bull. It’s a miniature treatise on symmetry, reposing beneath a low tree.