If the mythical-looking creature sitting by the steps at Fivesparks bearing oak leaves, holly, and moss, and sprouting horns out of its head doesn’t cause you to suddenly stop in your tracks, then maybe the mysterious stonelike shapes with runic marks by the entrance ramp will. Or maybe the dragon in the window will entice you to go into the building and investigate what’s going on.
There you will learn that these objects and more are part of a new exhibit titled “Darkness to Light” at Fivesparks from Dec. 4 to Jan. 4. The title refers to this dark time of the year as the hours of daylight diminish until the winter solstice Dec. 21, when the trend reverses and the daylight hours slowly increase. This celestial event has been and is celebrated throughout the Northern Hemisphere in stories, ceremonies, bonfires, feasts, and art in its many forms.
Linda Hoffman, curator, asked fellow sculptors Barbara Andrus, Anne Eder, her daughter Ariel Matisse, and students at the Harvard Ceramics Program—Rachel Hadari, Julie Nussbaum, Inga Wisniewski, Trish Youens, and Adria Katz—to respond to the idea of seasonal darkness and light and its many manifestations. The artists are variously connected to Hoffman and to Old Frog Pond Farm and Studio on Eldridge Road in Harvard, which serves as Hoffman’s studio, outdoor exhibition space, orchard, and home. Eder’s creatures live out their final days in the “boneyard” at Old Frog Pond. Hoffman and Matisse exhibit together as mother and daughter. Andrus also has a connection to field work, nature, and art. Eder’s students are from the Harvard Ceramics Program, a community project, in a class called “Get It Done,” which was designed to teach students to proceed from a call for art to an idea to proposal to exhibit. Andrus, Matisse, Eder, and students have all exhibited at Old Frog Pond at one time or another, so when Hoffman was approached about having a show at Fivesparks in December, she knew whom she wanted to invite. Now we, the viewers, are participants in exploring ideas of darkness and light with them.
In fact, the joy of this exhibit is how the images and ideas connect. There is a deep satisfaction and a lot of fun in discovering the threads of the art pieces to each other, to the history of the old library building and storytelling, to the solstice themes of celestial movements and nature, and how darkness and light are threaded through it all.
Before entering the building you will confront Anne Eder’s creature sitting outside Fivesparks as though greeting visitors, evoking the kind of wild spirit described in ancient fairy tales and myths. The figure was partially assembled before being brought to its present place where Eder then finished it with materials found on site.
As you walk up the outside entrance ramp, you come to the two mysterious stonelike shapes with carved marks. Julie Nussbaum explained that she was inspired by archaeological discoveries of ancient sites, whose purpose may have been related to astronomy and religion. The two pieces she exhibits here reference Turkish and Celtic sites, and the carved marks are intended to indicate a time before written language.
Inside the building in the room to your left you see Rachel Hadari’s milk-white planetary orbs, graduated in size, each one with a puncture revealing a neon orange interior. In the same room are Eder’s unique platinum palladium photographic prints, a technique developed in 1830 that is extremely durable and expressive.
Trish Youens’ ceramic piece requires getting up close to look into her theatrical stage, wherein two figures inhabit a forest, and the moon and stars provide light. She told how she recalled dancing outside during a full moon while at dance camp.
In the next room, a dining table is set with handmade books and painted placemats on an embroidered tablecloth. The books are made of artifacts long buried in the house of Barbara Audrus’ parents, which she has uncovered, brought up from the basement, and “brought to light.”
In that same room, white ceramic half-spheres glow on the wall like stars. Adria Katz explained how the show’s theme and the gallery’s name, Fivesparks, inspired her to learn about stars.
In the glassed-in reading area where the old checkout desk used to be, Inga Wisniewski’s Winter Dragon sits comfortably on the floor, glowing warmly from within. She made up a story about him swallowing the sun.
Ariel Matisse has a display of her wire sculptures of dancers and bare trees in the large room. The apparent simplicity of the rooted and branching trees belies the amount of work required to achieve their glowing golden color. She related how sometimes when she’s looking at them they seem to move and project energy. You can imagine the roots inching outward. The dancers complement the trees with branching arms and grounded feet. The pieces are mounted on beautiful, highly finished pieces of wood.
Linda Hoffman’s work is of various aspects of trees. Above Matisse’s wire sculptures is a large painting with birch bark in the center titled “Darkness to Light,” which is part of a 14-piece installation called “Stations of the Heart” (not exhibited here in its entirety). On the back walls are six tall panels with poetic text creating an installation called “The Pines.” Hoffman sees this placement as creating a grove of trees that semi-encircle the viewer. On the shelves are small bronze figures mounted on pieces of wood that retain their identity as former trees and complement each other in their poses and shapes. There are images of books in several pieces—of course, books are made from trees—and the books remind the viewer of the building’s former life as a library.
