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Patrick Dougherty: Twisted Logic
This exhibition marks a series of firsts for both Grounds For Sculpture and internationally acclaimed sculptor Patrick Dougherty. It is the first time an artist has set up residence at Grounds For Sculpture, and worked on site, to create sculptures for the indoor exhibition program. For Patrick Dougherty, this assignment marks the most ambitious installation he has undertaken to date. An expanded, twelve-week timeline provides a unique opportunity for him to explore many different forms within one installation, and since the sculptures have a relatively short life-span (generally two years), it also represents a kind of retrospective for the artist.
Patrick Dougherty’s exciting site-specific sculptures are made by weaving tree saplings into large organic constructions. The concept begins with a visit to the location, where drawings and ideas are formulated based on the physical and social qualities of the site. At Grounds For Sculpture, Patrick’s forms start as geometric and architectural, then flow into free-form, before culminating into a consolidated ending. His vision includes tower-like forms that creep up the stairs and form intimate spaces that can be entered. Next they flow down into a swirling, interlocking system of shells and nests before emptying their energy into vessels, giving a sense of movement and fluidity throughout the Museum. The artist’s process of creating an installation begins by gathering saplings from local sources, allowing for the surrounding environment to play a role in the construction of the piece. Then, with the help of volunteers from the community, these saplings are stripped of their leaves and prepared for their new lives as material for art. Patrick’s building method utilizes the natural qualities of the branches as they snag and grab on to each other, allowing for a tightly bound, woven structure to be shaped and formed by the builders, which include himself, an assistant, and a group of volunteers. Born in Oklahoma in 1945, and raised in North Carolina, an affinity for trees was nurtured as Patrick Dougherty wandered the forest around Southern Pines, NC. In 1967, Dougherty earned a degree in English from the University of North Carolina, and in 1969 earned his master’s degree in public health from the University of Iowa. After a short time as a hospital administrator, he soon found that other interests beckoned. In 1980, he began to study ceramics at the University of North Carolina. On his drive home to his log and stone house that friends declared a work of art, he would pass tangled brush growing along the roadside. He was drawn by the plentiful and renewable characteristics of the material, along with the ability to play with the drawing aspects of the linear forms, and to work on a large scale. As he states, “I believe one’s childhood shapes his or her choice of materials as an artist… When I turned to sculpture in the 1980s, it seemed easy to call up the forces of nature and incorporate scoring, sheering, and twisting into the surfaces of my sculptures.” Since then, Dougherty has constructed at least 10 large-scale, site-specific, temporary sculptures per year. In 2003, these included the Children’s Museum of Richmond, Richmond, VA; The Contemporary Art Museum, Honolulu, HI; and MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, Ontario, Canada.
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above and below:
Putting Two and Two Together
Completed June 25, 2004
Maple and willow
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum
Wausau, WI
Photo: Richard Wunsch/Woodson Art Museum
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Na Hale 'O Waiawi, 2003
strawberry guava and rose apple saplings
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
Photo: Paul Kodama |
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Headstrong,2002
Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
26’ high
Photo: Welsh Studios |
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Spittin’ Image, 2001
South Carolina Botanical Garden, Clemson, SC
24’ high
Photo: David Lewis |
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Threadbare,2002
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
20’ high
Photo: Jay Yocis |
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 Crossing Over, 1996
American Craft Museum, New York, NY
18’ high
Photo: Dennis Cowley
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Call of the Wild, 2002
Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art, Tacoma, WA
18’ high
Photo: Duncan Price
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Simple Pleasures, 2001
Bowdin College, Brunswick, ME
14’ high
Photo: Bowdin College Museum of Art |
(Return to Collection)
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