Mary by Brooke Barrie

What is your relationship with mystery? With the past? With relics and remains? How can we come to sit quietly with that which is no longer fully present before us? How do we lean into the implied, filling in assumed details? Notice the tension between the positive and negative space of the sculpture. Consider the delicacy of the bronze, the way its solidity is paired with airy thinness.

Movement: Mary lies upon a greenery-enveloped pedestal at the very center of the park. This location honors the profound impact Brooke Barrie has had on Grounds For Sculpture. She was the inaugural director and curator of GFS in addition to being one of the original artists involved. Recall someone that you hold in the highest esteem. Someone that you admire deeply. You do not have to know them personally. Spell their name out through movement. Use your whole body. Perhaps trace the letters into the air with your elbow, knee, or chin. Or write in the grass with your heel or shape your entire body into letters, etc. Honor them with gratitude.

Writing: Notice how the sculpture is complete in and of itself yet can easily be perceived as a fragment. Fill a page with a single block of writing. Let each line stretch across the entire page. Write without stopping for 5 minutes about something that haunts you. Take three cleansing breaths. Create an erasure poem. Find a poem in the lines of your text by blacking out or erasing at least 60% of the words.