On a sunny afternoon this week, I got a preview of “At Sixes and Sevens,” this year’s exhibit at Bundy Modern in Waitsfield.
I don’t think I’ve ever laughed out loud in sheer pleasure and delight at an art exhibit the way I did at this one. That surprised me.
To begin with, sculpture is different. Art can feel multidimensional in all kinds of ways, but sculpture actually occupies space with you. It asks something different of the viewer.
That three-dimensionality led to surprises I didn’t expect to encounter. It also made me wonder — and I discussed this with gallery co-owner June Anderson — what exactly goes on in the mind of a sculptor?
They must see things incredibly differently than I do. Or maybe my head is full of too many words. Whatever the explanation, the exhibit was fun and funny and, at moments, unexpectedly moving. Anderson explained that the sculptures were created, assembled and constructed on site, starting in April with various artists living and working in real time in a sort of sculpture camp atmosphere that was fun and inspiring.
We began inside the gallery and then wandered outside onto the grounds of Bundy Modern, which unfold across 10 acres of sculpted lawn, mature trees and long views.
The sculptures are placed strategically throughout the property so that as you move through the landscape, you also experience the structure, the pond, the mountains and everything surrounding them. The birds were singing. Nico, the gallery dog, ran around us, alternately shaking water onto us and delivering sticks.
A couple of the outdoor pieces made me laugh all over again. One work, “Folly,” is an underground, or inverse, arch. The artist excavated earth and installed creosote-darkened timbers into the ground, creating what felt like a negative walkway — a sculpture you want to move through. It practically begs to be ridden on a bike, rollerbladed through, skateboarded through or simply sprinted through. There were support beams holding it up when June and I visited, so we didn’t run through it. But it was tempting.
Another piece struck me as whimsical and profound at the same time.
Three oversized flags are placed seemingly at random around the property. One appears thin and light. Another feels heavier and more substantial. The third heavier still.
Across each flag is written a single word: Trust.
That piece lingered. June and I talked about how trust can feel simple when your flag is light and easily moved by the wind. It becomes something else entirely when your flag is heavier and requires a stronger gust. And does trust become even harder when that flag requires a gale-force wind?
That’s one of the pleasures of sculpture and of this exhibit in particular — encountering something physical and finding yourself unexpectedly in conversation about it, reacting to it and thinking about it afterwards.
Bundy Modern describes the exhibit as a reconsideration of Modernism and its “varied consequences and contradictory legacies.”
The exhibition features site-specific works by 10 contemporary artists with academic affiliations across New England and New York: Katarina Burin, Oscar Rene Cornejo, Gregory Gómez, Paloma Izquierdo, Anina Major, Daniela Rivera, Coral Saucedo, David Snyder, Constanza Alarcón Tennen and Elizabeth Tubergen.
According to exhibit materials, the title refers to a state of confusion and serves as a framework for presenting a broad range of artistic approaches and perspectives.
That description sounds serious — and parts of the exhibit are.
But what stayed with me most was the delight. The surprise. The invitation to stop thinking in words for a minute and instead notice shape, scale, space and the ways people make meaning and see the world.
“At Sixes and Sevens” opens June 20 and runs through Sept. 6. Works are installed both throughout Bundy Modern’s grounds and inside the historic gallery building, which was designed in 1962 by architect Harlow Carpenter as a space to display Modernist sculpture.
