Public Art
Turners Falls Sculpture Park
Are you interested in helping to create a sculpture park overlooking the the canal and Connecticut River in downtown Turners Falls? For more info, please email Joe Landry -Youth3dpark@aol.com
Woven River Installation by Sebastian Gutwein
Woven River is installed on a walkway starting where 7th Street turns into Hill Street at the base of the hill connecting the downtown to the upper part of the village, ending on High Street at Avenue B. The installation will remain until it disintegrates.
The Woven River project exposes some of the history of Turners Falls and the constant reincorporation of the past into the present through a series of five installations connected by an undulating woven wall of branches. Stenciled on the sidewalk is a poem, by Maria Williams-Russell, tying the installation together. Each part of the installation points to a hope and a lesson from Turners Falls' history useful in creating a vibrant future for the village. Woven River looks at the history of Turners Falls as it revolves around the Connecticut River. No river, no town. As the Connecticut runs and is wearing through the rock beneath it, it is in a sense wearing through the past exposing it to the fresh light of today. At the same time, the river is carrying these bits along with it, until it slows down and deposits its load. In the Connecticut River's case, this release was the bottom of Lake Hitchcock. That lake became our fertile river valley. The installation allows us to visually gather elements of Turners Falls' past and carry it along to lay the fertile foundations of Turners Falls' future.
About the artist:
Sebastian Gutwein is an artist, craftsman and ecological designer who cultivates a deep fascination with the poetics and politics of space and place. He is a founding partner of the Regenerative Design Group in Greenfield MA.
About the Poet
Maria Williams-Russell is a writer who sometimes thinks of herself as a lost bird whose feathers don't match the feathers of the other birds where she has landed. Adopted by a Lithuanian mother and a Mayflower descendant father, she is not quite sure what it means when people ask her for directions in Spanish or marvel at her olive skin. Her poetry seems to revolve, in various ways, around this idea of displacement, of where and what is home. Maria received her MFA in poetry from Goddard College and her poems have been published in The Bellevue Literary Review, Chronogram, Sous Rature and other small journals. She writes from her home in Greenfield, MA.
Sebastian Gutwein can be contacted baswein@gmail and 774-4589.
View map of installation site here.
