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Bright Lights for Winter Nights
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy invites all to view "Bright Lights for Winter Nights" on the Greenway every evening through the spring equinox, March 20, 2010. "Bright Lights for Winter Nights" includes five new lighting elements and sculptures that highlight the Greenway’s four distinctive park designs.
"Bright Lights on Winter Nights" reminds Bostonians that the Greenway is a park for all the seasons, and is another reason to bundle up and enjoy winter in Boston. Also, all lighting displays incorporate low-voltage, energy-efficient technologies in support of the Conservancy’s sustainable management practices.
The elements include, from south to north:
Colorful LED string lights adorn the plaza poles in Chinatown Park. Chinatown Main Streets, a community- based, public-private initiative for the Chinatown business district, graciously loaned the Conservancy the lights for this display and assisted in its design.
Brookine, MA native Bill Bell’s "Light Sticks, White", greets South Station commuters on Dewey Square Plaza with subtle scrolling images. The display presents an intriguing scene which can be read either as a fixed array of pulsating light or as a solid image traveling across the array, allowing viewers to fill in their own meaning. This unanticipated and visually arresting duality is achieved by the synchronized switching of 1,300 LED lights.
George Sherwood’s graceful temporary kinetic sculpture Botanica, installed July 2009, is now illuminated in the Wharf District Parks thanks to a generous anonymous donor. The choreography of "Botanica" is governed by a set of basic movements, facilitated by an arrangement of rotating joints and aerodynamic surfaces. Wind and light provide unpredictable elements of improvisation.
Also in the Wharf District Parks, the iconic Light Blades display a newly choreographed rhythm of color and pattern, changing each week. Two special programs will be created to feature the favorite colors of Massachusetts residents chosen at random in a free Conservancy raffle.
White LED string lights adorn the branches of the Great Elm in the northern most part of the North End Parks. This elm, the largest tree on the entire Greenway and our State Tree, symbolizes our national independence and days past when these tall trees lined town greens. The Great Elm on the Greenway stands today in a contemporary town green, and symbolically connects Boston’s past and present. The tree will be lit for the first time at a community celebration on Thursday, February 11 from 5-6 pm. Participating neighborhoods and organizations include New England Performing Arts Center, Boston City Councilor Sal LaMattina, and local restaurants. Free and open to the public.
“The Conservancy is thrilled with the collaborative community effort that went into creating a high impact/ low-cost - and energy-efficient – show of light and color for all to enjoy. The Greenway is a four-season park, and "Bright Lights for Winter Nights" gives people another reason to enjoy the Greenway. We invite residents and tourists alike to fight off the cold and dark by taking a brisk walk down the Greenway this winter and see all it has to offer," said Nancy Brennan, executive director.
Botanica
Botanica, a kinetic sculpture by acclaimed artist George Sherwood, was installed on The Rose F. Kennedy Greenway, Atlantic Avenue across from Rowes Wharf, in July 2009. This temporary art exhibit will run from July 23, 2009 to December 2010, with the provision that it may be removed during the winter months.
"Botanica" was originally chosen by a juried panel in a collaborative project between the Conservancy and the UrbanArts Institute of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design to install a few temporary exhibits of sculpture in advance of the October 2008 Greenway Inaugural Celebration. However, lack of funding and complexity of installation prevented installation of this work at that time. This spring the Conservancy received the support of a generous private donor.
About the artist:
George Sherwood is an award-winning sculptor whose works have been featured in parks, sculpture gardens at museums, and botanical gardens around the country, but particularly in New England.
Sherwood’s sculptures explore systems that incorporate space, time and the relationships between dynamic objects. The choreography of each piece is governed by a set of basic movements, facilitated by an arrangement of rotating joints and aerodynamic surfaces. The wind provides an unpredictable element of improvisation. Light, landscape and weather are integral to each sculpture. Many of the sculptures echo the vitality and gestures extracted from nature. The swaying of grass in a windy meadow, a flock of birds diving and swooping over the marsh, and the craning of a bird’s neck are patterns of movement that he has employed to give life to static forms. In 2008 he had a solo exhibit "Wind and Light" at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine. He also exhibited at the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Sculpture in Motion exhibition in the summer of 2008.
The reflective qualities of stainless steel further the integration of the sculpture into its environment. Wind speed and direction, shades of light, time of day, precipitation, and seasonal color interplay to transform the qualities of light and movement. Sherwood’s sculptures are best viewed over extended periods to appreciate the interaction with their natural setting. Sherwood is a member of Boston Sculptors and the Royal Society of British Sculptors for more information please visit http://www.georgesherwood.com.
For more information on the sculpture, contact Mary Kuechenmeister at Essex Fine Art, LLC at mary@essexfineart.net or 603.738.7477.
Harbor Fog
"Harbor Fog", Ross Miller, 2008. Granite and LED lights. (Wharf District Parks at Milk and India Streets)