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Monday, June 13, 2016

For the Birds?

Wondering what these are?
Maybe a collection of bird house condos for oversized birds?


But that's not correct. And, these structures surprised us as well on a visit to Salem, MA.
What are they? 
These are known as "environmental sculptures." This one is called What the Birds Know (so you were close). This environmental art installation was created by North Carolina artist Patrick Dougherty. 

Like many of Dougherty's works, it was built with saplings that were weaved and flexed into sculpture and it was commissioned by the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) also in Salem, MA.  Over the past 30 years, Dougherty had created more than 250 pieces throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. Photos of his other environmental sculpture pieces can be seen on his aptly named website, stickwork.net.


If you're in New England anytime the rest of this year, you can see and explore these sculptures, FREE of charge. Just walk around in downtown Salem, MA at the corner of Hawthorne Boulevard and Essex Street.  Believe me, you won't miss them and they will remain there until the end of December 2016.

14 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

They are quite bewitching.

Catherine said...

These "bird houses" are extraordinary... I can just hear my younger son asking where the giant birds are that built these! ;)

Anonymous said...

I don't care for this type of sculpture, sorry. Unappealing.

Michelle said...

I adore his works.

Kathy said...

I've never seen his work before. These are really interesting. At first I didn't think I liked them, but the more I looked at them, the more appealing they became.

MadSnapper said...

very interesting and great talent to create these.. i like the first row of four...

Ginnie said...

I've seen his work a few times and to be honest they give me the shivers. I have visions of all sorts of creepy insects burrowing in the twigs.

Emma Springfield said...

They are absolutely beautiful! I wish I could make it there to see them.

Connie said...

What interesting sculptures! They do look like giant birds' nests.

William Kendall said...

I would have assumed they were artistic.

possum said...

I can see kids playing in and out of them.

Lynn said...

It's clear those took a lot of time to make! Neat.

Anonymous said...

So very interesting. This artist created one of his sculptures at our new botanical garden.

Haddock said...

It is man made and looks artificial.