Susan Lyman - "Songs of Silence at Edgewood Farm", 2021-22, corkscrew willow, pine, wood dyes, gesso, permanent inks, acrylic varnish, 90" x 78 x 60" 2
The first version of this sculpture shown at my solo show "Harbinger" in 2021 was a fence-like installation of sinuous corkscrew willow branches I salvaged from a tree severely damaged by a microburst in a park in Boston. I stripped the bark, dyed, sanded, and painted the wood, and affixed the six vertical forms, at once tree-like and human-like, with wooden birds, painted a somber asphalt black. Compressing and enclosing the work into the symmetrical 5' x 6' former sauna here has given the work intimacy, and is perhaps is a place of refuge, for humans and birds and the sole resident red squirrel, who doesn't seem to have minded my moving in.
This symmetrical beautifully-proportioned compact shed/shack/house/refuge was built by Malcolm Meldahl for use as a wood-fired sauna. The structure has two windows (no glass and several mullions missing), a slender door opening with the door removed, no floor save for several floor joists, and is 84 x 58 x 71” (h x w x d, interior dimensions). Years of weather and sun exposure have imparted a well-worn patina to the structure.
Susan Lyman is a sculptor and painter who has lived year-round in Provincetown since 1981 when she was awarded a Visual Arts Fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center. She is also the recipient of grants from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and the Artists' Foundation of Boston. http://susanlyman.com/