* One man show, Highfield Hall, Falmouth, MA June through October, 2011
* "The Gift of Art," Art Foundry Gallery, Sacramento, January 2011
* New England Sculptors Annual, Endicott College, Beverly, MA 2010
* The Elite Ten, Falmouth Art Center 2010
* ArtExpo New York, 2010
* Red Dot Miami, 2009
Sculptural Art by Hugh Gibbons Enlivens the Grounds of Highfield Hall
Friday, September 16, 2011, Falmouth Enterprise, by Annie Dean
The sculptures of Hugh Gibbons, installed on the grounds of Highfield Hall this summer, offer a delightful modern counterpoint to the stately mansion and its new formal garden. Over eight feet tall, slender and airy, the 10 redwood, cedar and limestone works are sprinkled about the lawn, in harmony with both the mansion’s architecture and the woods that surround it. Contemporary art is not always easy to place unobtrusively in a setting as formal as the Victorian Highfield Hall, but Mr. Gibbons has managed to create an intelligent installation that suits the site, and also honors his work as individual art pieces.
Whether driving by or parking visit the hall, it is hard to miss the animated shapes of two tall redwood sculptures, “Silver Wheel” and “Silver Standard.” The weathered gray tones and incised shapes echo the woods that surround the site, like trees with fanciful branches.
“Silver Wheel” evokes a windmill and in passing can even give the illusion of movement. It has a whimsical spirit in tune with Mr. Gibbons’s inspiration for the work, memories of the Windmill cookies he enjoyed as a child. “As I musing over the materials in my studio, the Windmill logo came to mind. I had not thought of the cookies since childhood, but when the idea surfaced, I just went with it.” he said.
Mr. Gibbons maintains art studios in both North Falmouth and Sacramento and the creative process for these sculptures began with the selection California redwood and cedar posts and planks. Once back in the studio he contemplated wood, sometimes for several weeks, and eventually he was energized by an idea.
However, not all of his inspirations are as lighthearted as the iconic logo of Windmill cookies. Mr. Gibbons has included one small limestone piece, “The Sentinel,” because of its profound and timely message.
“I made ‘Sentinel’ after seeing Henry Moore’s large bronze sculpture, ‘Nuclear Energy,’ at the University of Chicago,” Mr. Gibbons said. “It presents the human face of nuclear power and its destructive and beneficial dimensions. It evokes a human head in the front and a mushroom cloud in the back. The sculpture represents the sentinel, or guardian, who tries to keep track of nuclear capability so that it is used for good, not ill.”
He has placed the sculpture closest to the mansion’s front door, as if to watch guard over this building as well.
Some of Mr. Gibbons’s creations, like “Royal Screw,” are just pure fun. A radiant swirl of a sculpture, it glimmers in the sunlight. “I carved the post into an elongated screw,” Mr. Gibbons said, “and was then inspired by automotive paint and covered the red cedar with four coats of the bright red epoxy.”
The work is so eye-catching and tempting to touch that a small boy shouted, “A unicorn horn!” at a recent Highfield outdoor event and eagerly proceeded to scale the sculpture, nearly to the top, before his dad whisked him away.
Viewers who approach the building from the lower parking lot are greeted by a clever series of abstract sculptures with an urban theme. Mr. Gibbons created these sculptures while contemplating how an architect can construct an enormous tall building that withstand high winds.
“The solution I worked out through these sculptures is to leave open space between floors all the way up,” he explained. With that in mind, the works do resemble miniature skyscrapers, especially when viewed from the bottom of the stairs. In “Stripes and Bars,” Mr. Gibbons has ever created the illusion of looking up at a tall building fading away in the sky by utilizing alternating bands of dark and light “blocks” in incrementally smaller widths.
Although this series of sculptures was not created to be site-specific to the Highfield property, some remarkable visual references exist between the art and the grounds and architecture. “Gray Ghost” echoes the incised lines, shape and gray tones of the parking lot’s granite stairs; the dark and light wood bands of the skyscraper series harmonize with the light clapboards and red ornamental “stick work” of the mansion; and the compact rounded shape of “The Sentinel” marks the front entrance much like the hitching posts on the opposite side of the walkway.
Mr. Gibbons’s sculptures have added a whole new dimension to the blossoming “art on the hill” of Highfield Drive and his sensitive and thoughtful installation provides viewers a chance to experience art as part of a much bigger world than the gallery wall. Since the installation will be intact for several more weeks, a marvelous vista still awaits visitors traveling along Highfield Drive.
The sculptures of Hugh Gibbons will be on view through Columbus Day weekend. Highfield Hall is at 56 Highfield Drive in Falmouth. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 10AM to 4PM and Sunday 10AM to 1PM. Admission is free; donations are appreciated.
(Annie Dean is an artist, art educator and historian, and a life-long resident of Falmouth.)
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