Throughout the summer of 2008, George Sherwood’s kinetic sculpture delighted visitors at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Nine stainless steel pieces, ranging in scale from a table-top interior WIND ORCHID to the thirty foot tall TENDRILS, animated the landscape. Abstracted HERONS danced in the pond among lilies, with their reflections mirrored in the water’s surface. FLOCK OF BIRDS soared over the Event Lawns as individual helixes rotated in light, yet moved together as one. In the Entry Gardens, FUSION contained the synergistic power to transform with the brush of a butterfly wing, and on the Great Lawn, TENDRILS traced the wind’s path with lingering form while flashing in moments of light.
Wind driven and meticulously crafted to catch the light, George Sherwood’s sculpture resonates deeply, striking a chord that connects viewers to their primal relationship with the natural world. While other kinetic artists use more geometric forms that reflect a mechanistic worldview, George Sherwood celebrates botanical forms and patterns in nature with proportional harmony. Sherwood creates sculpture intricate in its complexity yet pared down to elegant essential form. His work contains great volume without mass. The result quickens our heart and nurtures our soul with each breath of wind and flash of sunlight.
Henry Moore, who used organic forms as inspiration, said that the sculpture that moved him most gave out “something of the energy and power of great mountains.” Moore’s sculpture thrived in the open landscape as it interacted with the elements and seasons and viewers saw the landscape with new perspective. Sherwood’s sculpture also invites the viewer to engage more fully with the environment. Visitors to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens reinforced this with their written comments such as, “Thank you for this unique and wonderful oasis. I have been to Botanical Gardens throughout the world, but have never seen one which combines floral, natural surrounding and art so well.” Another reads, “Beautiful, engaging sculpture that both amplifies and complements its surroundings.” Sherwood’s sculpture returns us to the garden and to the rhythms of the natural world.
We are all searching for something in our culture…soulful connection, meaningful understanding of our place in the patterns and processes of nature. George Sherwood’s kinetic sculpture reminds us of those connections. The stainless steel materials are entirely modern while the forms and patterns of movement pick up an ancient pulse. His environmental art sensitizes viewers to their place in the natural world and to all the intrinsic subtleties and power of nature itself. This is sculpture that re-animates Earth and exemplifies art for an ecological age.