Exploring Contemporary Sculpture at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts

Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, located about an hour and a half from St. Louis, Missouri, is tucked among an arcadian residential neighborhood in Mount Vernon, Illinois. Due to its unassuming surroundings, its not the easiest place to find. One would certainly drive right pass the site if not for Ned Cain's cyclopean, steel construction Three Travelers (2006) towering above the black, metal perimeter fencing. The artwork is part of the outdoor gallery known as the Bernard F. Kuenz Sculpture Park, a 90-acre campus decorated with over 60 sculptures made from a variety of media including concrete, fiberglass and wood. Established in 1992, the park's pastoral setting offers the perfect environment in which to view the mostly abstract works produced by regional, national and international artists. 

Ned Cain, Three Travelers, 2006, Steel 

John Kearney, Gorilla, 1990,
Chromed car bumpers

John Kearney is amply represented by three chromed sculptures, one of which is Gorilla (1990), a zoomorphic work made from welded automobile bumpers. Situated near the entrance to the parking lot, the ape-like form hunches forward on its rectangular platform and stares vacuously at the viewer with hollow eyes. In comparison to Kearney's other lighthearted pieces, Gorilla's presence is noticeably unnatural. The ungainly junctures, coupled with the gleaming, reflective surface of the chrome, lend to the sculpture a mournful, futuristic quality, which seems to portend the real animal's impending extinction in the wild.

Pat McDonald, Dolmen, 2000, Cast concrete

Looking to the ancient past for inspiration, Pat McDonald's sculpture Dolmen (2000) is based on Neolithic burial chambers the artist encountered during a family trip to Ireland. Resembling weathered stone, the primitive, architectonic structure, made of cast concrete, is composed of four massive vertical posts topped by a colossal slab. McDonald artfully plays with the negative space between the supports and underneath the angled roof, creating portals through which the viewer can traipse in and out. Entering the Dolmen from the oversize opening at the back of the sculpture, and emerging from the small orifice at the other end, feels vaguely transformative like some archaic ritual now lost on the uninitiated, contemporary visitor.

From afar, Chakaia Booker's sculpture Serendipity (1998), stacked like Lincoln Logs, appears to be some sort of architectural ruin gutted by fire. The bowl-like structure calls to mind the remains of a burned out fort; however, upon closer inspection, one finds that the charcoal colored blocks are in fact wooden beams encased in shredded tires. The patterned grooves, adorning the treads, add an interesting visual as well as tactile quality to the work, drawing the viewer into and around the space encompassing the modular construction. Designed in the form of a gigantic question mark, Booker's artwork celebrates fortuitous discovery. As a result of serendipity, Booker stumbled upon discarded automobile tires as an artistic medium, and through the process of repurposing the rubber scraps, creates objects that are once again new, and valuable.

Chakaia Booker, Serendipity, 1998, Rubber tires, steel and wood

Serendipity, Dolmen and Gorilla, represent only a tiny fraction of the intriguing artworks that grace the expansive front lawn of the park. Beyond the pond, along gravel paths that meander through the woods, more sculptures await the inquisitive visitor. 

To be continued.