REVISITING OLD FAVORITES AT CEDARHURST CENTER FOR THE ARTS

The outdoor gallery, known as the Kuenz Sculpture Park, at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, located in Mount Vernon, Illinois, is the ideal place to connect with contemporary art. Interspersed among 90 acres of woodland and fields are over 60 sculptures to explore and ponder. Towering groves surround many of the works providing much needed shade on sunny days, and under their canopy of branches, there is an occasional bench where one can sit and mull over the multitudinous artworks.

Over the narrow footbridge, beyond the pond, the dense arrangement of monumental sculptures dominating the front lawn gives way to smaller works situated in sparse, intimate settings among the forest. Without a map, finding them is bit like playing hide and seek as various paths snake and merge in unexpected places; one never knows what is around the next bend.

Such is the case with Bull (1997) by John Kearney. Nestled in a deep recess in the woods, Bull's stout, chromed body, fashioned from used car parts, stands alert with his head and tail erect. However, instead of confronting the approaching visitor as if facing down a matador in the bullring, Bull seems completely oblivious to the viewer's presence. Installed perpendicular to the trail, Bull's orientation calls to mind a high relief sculpture thereby diminishing its three dimensionality, as well as, the potential threat of violence a face-to-face encounter would evoke.

John Kearney, Bull, 1997 

Further along the same trail, a keen eye catches glimpses of violet peeking through the verdant foliage. As one draws nearer, Jeff Brundege's agile sea serpents swim rapidly into view. In contrast to Bull's disinterested demeanor, Brundege's The Eels (n.d.) seem to aggressively pursue the viewer; their undulating bodies surge forward, and with bared teeth, they appear poised for the attack. Made of painted fiberglass, the seven kitschy sculptures, originally designed for a Bass Pro Shop, could easily serve as props for a B-rated horror flick, and add a bit of sportive humor to the otherwise "respectable" art collection.

Jeff Brundege, The Eels, n.d.

At the confluence of two broad paths, an expansive clearing emerges revealing five oversized Pods (1998). Arranged in a semi-circle adjacent to a tangle of shrubs, Robin Murez's biomorphic sculptures immediately bring to mind black walnuts, albeit gigantic seeds made of concrete. Their course, hollow, mahogany shells, opened on one end, look as if they have been picked clean by an equally large omnivore. However, after more consideration, one can also imagine that the pitted pods are abandoned egg casings from which some alien, animal form has issued forth and taken refuge in the nearby boughs.

Robin Murez, Pods, 1998

After wandering the vast grounds, one can cool off with a visit to the Mitchell Museum. The permanent collection, amassed by collectors John and Eleanor Mitchell, comprises over 400 paintings, sculptures and decorative art objects by leading 19^th and 20^th century American artists. In addition, the museum hosts several temporary art exhibitions each year in its two rotating galleries.

Whether with lighthearted humor or the sober mindedness of a scholar, the interpretive possibilities are endless and with so much to see, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts is a place to engage with art over and over again, regardless of one's inclination.

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.