Consilience

This sculpture explores the idea of harbors as meeting points or nodes on a network of intersecting paths, and draws on two common types of networks found in nature: dendritic or branching networks, such as a network of streams or the branches on a tree; and nodal networks, such as the paths each of us takes through life or the neural network in our brains, in which lines or paths meet at nodes, cross and continue on.

The cylinders on the ground are rammed earth colored with iron oxide, and form a dendritic network of “stepping stones” that starts in the center of the space and branches off in multiple directions. Two chains of wooden branches form an intersecting network that sweep through the space. In addition, the branches are arranged such that they form gateways or thresholds between the central space of the sculpture and the surrounding areas.

Location: The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, Massachusetts, as part of a group outdoor sculpture exhibit titled: The Complex Harbor, Refuge, Protection, Threshold.