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Exquisite Copse

October 4 – November 6, 2020

Palumbo Park
723 Catharine St.
Philadelphia, PA

Artists:
Clifford Bailey, Ken Beidler, Patrick Cabry, David Deakin, Karen Izzi, Leslie Kaufman, Gregory Laut, Carole Loeffler, Rebecca Schultz, Bina Shah, Naomi Teppich, Nina Valdera

 

This fall, Philadelphia Sculptors will be participating in the inauguration of the Da Vinci Fest, a new Philadelphia arts festival. Inspired by its namesake, Leonardo da Vinci, the Da Vinci Art Alliance will be celebrating creativity across disciplines as it presents events, exhibitions, and creative activities for the public. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, most, but not all, of the festival will be presented virtually.

In Participation With:

 

About Exquisite Copse

Our role will be to create a temporary exhibition of sculptures in Palumbo Park, a small community park adjacent to Fleisher Art Memorial and across the street from the Da Vinci Art Alliance, during the month of October. The sculptures will be in the spirit of da Vinci and some of the remarkable artist who came after him. A play on the Surrealists’ game “Exquisite Corpse,” Exquisite Copse will be a three-dimensional version installed in the garden areas and walkways of the park.

Even though much of the festival will be virtual, our outdoor sculpture exhibition will still take place in real time and real space. Twelve artworks will pop out from the bushes, hang from the trees, and creep along the walkways of Palumbo Park. True to the spirit of both Leonardo Da Vinci and the Surrealists, the artworks in Exquisite Copse delight, engage, and mystify.

Who doesn’t like ice cream cones? Ken Beidler offers Upside Down, a gigantic cone of wood and polypropylene twine – but after it has met with an unfortunate accident and fallen to the ground. Perhaps its owner was frightened by Gregory Laut’s Lizard Person, a bodiless creature roaming the gardens, or by Bina Shah’s disturbing Caged, half woman, half lobster. Or by Carole Loeffler’s domesti-pede, an even stranger organism with long tendrils swinging from the branches of a small tree. Or maybe Naomi Teppich’s Covid Alive was just too strong a reminder of how inverted our lives have become.

And what about those trees? Palumbo Park’s stately sycamores do a double take at a strange new visitor that seems to be a tree, but not one in any botany book. Leslie Kaufman’s Return to Nature looks more like the work of a misguided plumber than anything remotely organic. And lobsters aren’t the only ones in cages – Patrick Cabry’s Please Recycle has a struggling tree stuck in a recycling bin as it gets covered with trash. Rebecca Schultz expands the domain of the sycamores, allowing them to fight back and regain their turf as she extends their roots all over the park with What Lies Beneath (pictured). Karen Izzi provides suggestions of a life to come with Women in Good Company, a gathering of diverse tree parts standing in for women.

Leonardo himself must be smiling down on all of this. Referencing Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man and the rule of proportion that determined that eight heads equal the height of a human body, Clifford Bailey’s Play of Proportion presents eight heads inside a cube – lots of intellect! And David Deakin’s Hearts & Minds Embracing Earth gives a shout-out to both art and science while giving some needed love to our planet. A big red heart wraps itself around an illuminated globe in a tight embrace. Nina Valdera goes even further – in Reflected she thinks about Da Vinci’s ideas of the cosmos as she brings heaven down to earth using LED lights to create illumination.

Don’t miss a chance to get outside and expand both your inner and outer life. Instead of looking at a screen, you can see real, physical artwork in a safe environment. The exhibition will be free and open to the public daily.

Hear from Philadelphia Sculptors President, Leslie Kaufman about the conceptualization of Exquisite Copse and from artists Rebecca Schultz and Carole Loeffer about their work in the exhibition.

 

Artists

Clifford Bailey

Play of Proportion
Metal, plaster, concrete, plastic

Play of Proportion is the deconstruction of the traditional life drawing experience. I’m working with the rule of proportions, the human figure, and the use of boxes and pedestals. I am exploring the idea of heads within boxes based on the drawing proportion rule that states 7.5 or 8 heads equal the height of a human body. I am deconstructing this exploration and putting it back together. What if these drawing concepts were displayed in a more literal way? I am using metal to create the box, using it as the structure that holds these proportions. I am using a bunch of heads instead of actual body parts to exhibit a “Surrealist” feel.

Ken Beidler

Upside Down
Polypropylene twine, wood, metal, paint

The theme for Upside Down comes from the unhappy circumstance in which the thing you have been waiting for and anticipating is taken away. Picture a hot summer day. Having just bought an ice cream cone you are about to take a first lick when your friend accidentally bumps into you and the cone goes ice cream side down onto the ground.

My sculpture is made of colored polypropylene twine and a constructed wood cone supported with an internal metal structure.  It would be installed with the ball of twine on the ground and tilted slightly with the cone extending upward. The sculpture could have the option to be interactive with a chalkboard paint surface viewers could write on with colored chalk. I would not provide prompts for writing but one connection viewers may make is to the many lost opportunities and hopes in the context of the pandemic

Patrick Cabry

Please Recycle
Plexiglas, soil, plants, Arduino, LED, solar panels

In the spirit of Leonardo Da Vinci, my work converges at the intersection of art and science. Just as Da Vinci had once drafted and tinkered with mechanisms that would inevitably alter humanity via technological innovation, I too seek an artful way to approach the topic of environmental solutions through bio-design. My “recycling bin” is a self-contained vessel run on Arduino computer programming, artificial light, and solar power. The transparent bin offers the viewer the ability to see the direct impact of where single-use plastic ultimately finds itself, and provokes an internal struggle within a participant as to whether or not they can consciously place a piece of single-use garbage directly onto living plants. When onlookers stand by and watch the recycling bin get used, one cannot help but wonder, if the trash were no longer out of sight, would it no longer be out of mind?

David Deakin

Hearts & Minds Embracing Earth
Polystyrene foam, acrylic, hardware

Imagine a world where each and every person in each and every community is a participant in the game of "exquisite copse." An alternative vision to that which has been perpetuated under the guise of a social paternal hierarchy cloaking an underlying supremacy frame of mind.

Imagine a science where the impetus for knowledge is directed toward the commonweal of the whole planet. An alternative vision to that which has been perpetuated under the guise of progress cloaking the principle of supremacy upon which the model of our capitalist cultural is built.

Imagine an art where the impetus is the construction of a diversity of devices that communicate to community the complexity and wonder of all beings. An alternative vision to that which has been perpetuated under the myth of the isolated creative genius that only serves to reinforce the exceptionalism ideology - the root of the supremacy frame of mind.

Imagine an art and science dance: a dance of hearts and minds.

Karen Izzi

Women In Good Company
Wood, metal, cardboard, stone, plaster, paint

Women In Good Company was created to celebrate women and diversity among all women. The collection rests in our Chester County garden where the women continue to age in their natural surroundings. Much like us, they are unique, naturally transforming, possessing different colors, wrinkles, nubs, visible damage to their skin, weight appearing in different areas, left with scars, and new growth. Each tree part was once a scrap as the rest of its body was carried off. These women have survived and have reinvented themselves. They gather to support one another in a strong, diverse community.

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Leslie Kaufman

Return to Nature
PVC pipe fittings, plastic, wire

Living in the city, I am constantly confronted with an increasing human presence that brings with it unchecked development and strain on our infrastructure.  At the same time, the remnants of the natural world are harder and harder to find and preserve, and wildlife has learned to adapt to constructed habitats.

Return to Nature addresses issues of the replacement of the natural with the artificial, as well as the degradation of nature. It uses building materials to construct a different, adapted vision of nature - one that can be viewed as either resilient or wobbly. Unlikely materials are combined to create a recognizable object that takes on new meaning. Plumbers’ PVC pipefittings, used to channel the waste flow as it takes its journey back through our sewer systems, or occasionally, back into our waterways, stand in for tree trunks and branches. Our structures and our systems are upended - with unknown consequences for the future.

Gregory Laut

Lizard Person
Cardboard, papier mache, wood, paint

I created this as a theater set piece for my fiancé’s theater company for their production The Lizard of Oz. The jaw can be manually moved up and down in from the back. I think this a perfect piece for the exhibition and could potentially combine really well with other artists’ works.

Carole Loeffler

Domesti-pede
Felt, fabric, weights

 I often do Exquisite Corpse drawings with my artist friends, students and kids. I always draw a creature with many legs when the paper is passed to me! It is an appropriate form for this project because it can function in many locations because of the nature of the long legs. I would like to continue to introduce domestic handmade textiles into the built environment. It causes a viewer to pause and connect interior and exterior (physically, mentally and emotionally). Introducing textiles in the landscape for long periods of time also shows how durable the product of "woman’s work" really is.

Rebecca Schultz

What Lies Beneath
Gaffers tape

What Lies Beneath is a site-specific installation of variable dimensions that makes visible the root systems of the trees in Palumbo Park. Urban trees are not planted the way they would grow in a forest ecosystem; they’re often isolated and their root systems are covered with concrete or brick. Yet recent research indicates that trees communicate with each other on a cellular level through their root systems. They thrive in community. The trees in Palumbo Park, due to their proximity, most likely have a shared root system. During the installation period, I will make a linear drawing starting with the trees that will spread across the sidewalk. I will research the root systems of the tree species in the park beforehand so that the piece is as scientifically accurate as possible.

Because I am creating the piece on site, and the dimensions are flexible, it will be easy to connect it with other sculptural works. The linear nature of the work lends itself to the concept of Exquisite Copse. I welcome the opportunity to collaborate with other artists on this exciting project.

Bina Shah

Caged
Ceramic, wood

 The present day catastrophe happened by chance, but it was rooted in manmade negligence that poses a constant threat to our fragile ecosystem. The surreal imagery I use reflects my fear of political inaction, which can have dire consequences.

Inspired by how a lobster changes color when cooked for human consumption, Caged is an intuitive response to the violence that fuels extravagance. Using the female form to symbolize the entrapment of that which is ultimately doomed. Caged questions the interplay of violence, insatiability, and opulence. A sinuous and fierce form which is also fragile.

Naomi Teppich

Covid Alive
Ferro-cement, steel, golf balls

My sculpture Covid Alive was built this spring 2020 from the structure of a previous ferro-cement sculpture called Shrooms. That piece was done seventeen years ago and was built as an homage to the mushroom. I viewed the mushroom as a savior of the environment and depleted soils. I enjoyed the piece for the time it lasted. Unfortunately due to problems with drainage the top section of the piece was continually filled with fall leaves, snow, ice etc., and it didn't hold up. I was planning to knock out all the cement sections, but discovered that the armature was still strong and so was its ferro-cement base.

While I was involved with this sculpture, the world was experiencing the Covid 19 virus. I therefore decided to convert and recycle this sculpture into a new piece exposing the steel rebar and rod structure and adding what was for me Covid- like flowers made of metal mesh coated with layers of cement, and the addition of golf balls. I also entirely changed the coloration from a rusty orange to a grey, red, and white palette.

The theme of this work is not surrealistic, but is a rebirth of a dead object into a new life form. It also takes the negative experience of this virus and changes it into a positive artistic expression.

Nina Valdera

Reflected
Wood, acrylic, LED lights

The proposal that I am submitting for the Exquisite Copse exhibition is a light sculpture that was inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci. My inspiration came from reading about Da Vinci’s use of mathematical principles of linear perspectives, parallel lines, and horizontal lines to create the illusion of depth. Da Vinci also used the concept of the rule of thirds also known as “Divine Proportion” or “Phi” to achieve supreme beauty. “Phi” is a recurring element in nature that repeats itself regularly. My idea struck me when reading about Da Vinci’s explanation of a phenomenon called “earthshine.” It was when he realized that both Earth and the Moon reflect sunlight at the same time. Light is reflected from the earth to the moon and back to earth as earthshine. Da Vinci’s revelations relating to light, nature and the cosmos made me visualize three squares. The squares I envisioned are made up of circular wooden discs and acrylic sheets that are layered on top of one another. I am using circular discs for this sculpture to symbolize heaven and the square frames to symbolize earth, relating to Da Vinci’s revelations of the cosmos and his love of nature. LED lights will be wired through the square frame illuminating the layers of colored acrylic sheets. The three square sculptures will reflect light representing the sun, earth and the moon onto each other and the viewer.

 

Installation Images