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‘4 Elements’ at Forest Hills and ‘South Enders 2’ at the Mills Gallery
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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The ambling Victorian expanse that is Forest Hills Cemetery forms an intense setting for art and thought inspired in part by the major commemorative works by sculptors like Daniel Chester French, the ghosts of famous dead Bostonians like poet e.e. cummings and playwright Eugene O’Neill, and the heady ambiance of mortality, immortality, and lush nature. The imaginative folks at the Forest Hills Educational Trust, a nonprofit organization that works to preserve and enhance the historic cemetery, have become increasingly adept at using contemporary art and artists to bring this magical 275-acre landscape to life. This summer through August 31, the Trust presents an exhibition of 17 site-specific installations and sculptures created by 20 artists (some working in collaborative teams) called "The 4 Elements: Earth, Air, Water and Fire." The adventurous art may be found hanging from a tree, reflected in a lake, or dug into the ground. Maps to the various sites can be picked up at the main entrance daily for self-guided tours. But if you want a little additional insight into this unusual juxtaposition of the contemporary with the grand Victorian, you can avail yourself of the Twilight Tours that participating artists are offering on July 13 and August 10. Artists participating in the July 13 tour include the collaborative duo Daniel Bouthot and Christopher Ho, who have replanted a section of the cemetery’s lush lawn to create Luncheon on the Grass, a growing, checkered picnic blanket with allusions both to the history of Forest Hills as a popular destination for Victorian-era picnickers and to ƒdouard Manet’s famous painting Le dŽjeuner sur l’herbe (in which two well-dressed gentlemen are casually having lunch in the park with a nude woman), from which the installation has borrowed its name. Kathleen Driscoll’s sculpture Column One: Falling Water was inspired by a nearby draped figure created by Daniel Chester French, and it invokes the other amazing draped and shrouded sculptures throughout the cemetery, where the solidity and permanence of materials like marble and granite have been sculpted to reflect wings and shrouds and other symbols of the ephemerality of life. Accomplished Boston artist Ambreen Butt and ubiquitous Boston art raconteur James Hull (who is one of the four jurors of the Forest Hills exhibition) have juried the upcoming "South Enders 2," which, opening at the Boston Center for the Arts’ Mills Gallery next Friday, showcases the breadth and vibrancy of the South End’s art community. The line-up includes Susan Jane Belton, Robin Dash, Rebecca Doughty, Lina Maria Giraldo, John Guthrie, Alexandra Metral, Tom Ouellette, Ellen Rich, and Heidi Whitman, all of whom either live or have studios in the South End. The show will remain open through next fall’s South End Open Studios, which, now in its 17th year, will take place on September 13 and 14, with more than 200 artists opening their studios to the public. Consider "South Enders 2" a selective sneak preview of this mammoth annual undertaking, as well as a hot ticket in its own right. "The 4 Elements: Earth, Air, Water and Fire" is at Forest Hills Cemetery, 95 Forest Hills Avenue, one block from the Forest Hills T stop on the Orange Line, or one mile past the Arboretum on the Arborway/Route 203, through August 31. Walking tours with participating artists will be held on July 13 and August 10 at 6 p.m., free of charge. For information about this and other events, call (617) 524-0128 or visit www.foresthillstrust.org. "South Enders 2" is at the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street in the South End, from July 18 through September 26, with an opening reception on July 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. For information, call (617) 426-8835.
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