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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 17, 2006

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Susan Crane (215) 247-5777 x121

LIVING FOSSIL SUBJECT OF ART EXHIBIT: meta Metasequoia at The Morris Arboretum

The Morris Arboretum presents a new site-specific project by artists Margo Mensing and John McQueen that focuses on the dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) grove. Mensing and McQueen, in collaboration with J. Shermeta, KSS Architects, were inspired by the unique history and ecological importance of these magnificent sculptural trees once thought extinct. They have designed an artwork-as-viewing platform for visitors to climb twelve feet into the lower branches of the tree canopy. Here visitors will have an intimate, focused view of the tree, while listening to a fanciful conversation between a Metasequoia and a person. “The goal is to encourage participation with nature, not merely display an object sitting in the grass,” said John McQueen. 

The Morris Arboretum invited local independent curator, Julie Courtney to curate a new exhibit in its Madeleine K. Butcher Sculpture Garden. Courtney invited Mensing and McQueen based on their past collaborative projects that deal with local history and ecology. John McQueen, of Saratoga Springs, New York, and Margo Mensing, of Gansevoort, New York, frequently collaborate to create site-integrated projects. In their individual works and projects both artists respond to history and site through material and narrative. Their approach to construction and conceptual content varies in their individual work and in their collaborations. McQueen usually works with natural materials, often willow branches he grows in his yard. His latest works include large willow constructions combining tied images and words. Mensing chooses medium and material in response to the situation at hand. She frequently uses found objects as well as textile constructions, video and photographs. Neither artist is trained in building climbable, code compliant structures and so they turned to Philadelphia architect and designer, J. Shermeta for his ideas and design expertise. He responded with a stable, visually arresting haven in the Metasequoia grove that will last for the duration of the project, at least three years.
 
The Viewing Structure is a combination of three steel trusses that are upended onto their points. The trusses are long and slender, fragile on their own.  Brought together they form a stable structure, like a tripod whose bolted connections allow for gentle movement.  The structure is affected by weight and wind, and like a tree, sways as you climb its trunk.  At the top of the stairs in the space between the leaning trusses is a basket made from tangerine painted steel and hardwood.  The basket provides a place for people to be in the trees--to sit and listen to the sounds and to see the Metasequoias at arm’s length, says Shermeta.

An interpretive sound piece, meta meta is installed on the observation platform. History and botanical insights relating to Metasequoia trees are told through a fanciful poetic dialogue between two characters, a Metasequoia tree and a person, while a musical composition complements the narrative. “I’m not quixotic, but I am exotic” and other phrases pepper the conversation. Visitors learn a bit of the history of the Metasequoia, including its discovery in the 1940s in central China by a local forester.

John McQueen’s awards include: two National Endowment for the Arts Artists Fellowships, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Virginia A. Groot Foundation, and New York Foundation for the Arts. Originally known as a basket maker he began constructing large sculptures in the 1990s focusing first on geographic representations and then human figure. In May 2004 in a solo exhibition at Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin, he created a large installation and fifty foot wall drawing in willow. Margo Mensing’s awards include a Midwest Artist NEA Regional Artists Grant and residency as a fellow at The Institute of Humanities, University of Michigan, January—March 2004. Her work pays attention to the social history of the particular place, as in Lace Collars for Troy: Collar City at the Millennium. For her projects, she often assembles a visual collection that ties together little known historical facts, creating new contexts open to interpretation. She is an Associate Professor of Art at Skidmore College where she teaches textile arts.  J. Shermeta is a Philadelphia-based architect working for KSS Architects, a firm specializing in educational projects. He is project director for Ramer History House at Lafayette College and has completed several studios for artists. He enjoys working closely with artists to achieve well crafted spaces for contemplation and making. Shermeta earned a Masters of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a recipient of the John K. Branner Traveling Fellowship.

The Morris Arboretum, which opened to the public in 1932, is an interdisciplinary center of the University of Pennsylvania. Official arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it is one of very few public gardens accredited by the American Association of Museums. Displaying art in the garden is a tradition that began with the Arboretum’s founders, John and Lydia Morris and continues with the Arboretum’s Sculpture Garden, which was established in 1988 and is supported by the Madeleine K. Butcher Fine Arts Endowment. The Butcher Sculpture Garden is an outdoor gallery along the banks of the Wissahickon Creek dedicated to featuring the temporary works of significant regional emerging artists and integrating sculpture and the fine art of garden design. This project will be the sixth in a series of commissioned projects. Exhibits installed in the past include Stacey Levy’s Wissahickon Food Web and most recently, Richard Torchia’s Camera Obscura.

McQueen and Mensing’s meta Metasequoia expands Morris Arboretum’s mission as an historic public garden and educational institution promoting an understanding of the relationship between plants and people through programs that integrate science, art and the humanities.  

The Morris Arboretum is located at 100 Northwestern Avenue in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. The 92-acre horticulture display garden features a spectacular collection of mature trees in a Victorian landscape. The Arboretum features numerous picturesque spots such as the formal rose garden, Japanese gardens, swan pond, meadows, and the elegant Fernery. The Morris Arboretum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the official arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is open Monday through Friday from 10AM to 4PM, Sat-Sun 10AM-5PM.

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