Swirling towers of willow saplings create sanctuary and inspire play in one of the most ambitious pieces in Brooklyn right now — a site-specific sculpture of fantastical nest houses constructed solely out of tree saplings and branches at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
“It’s a sculpture for feral children and wayward adults,” said artist Patrick Dougherty, who allowed the Garden’s milieu to drive his creative aspirations for his piece, called “Natural History.” “It fits the Garden’s air of discovery.”
Dougherty is known throughout the world for his iconic stick works, but this is the artist’s first city installation. Located in the Garden’s Plant Family Collection area, the sculpture will last for one year, enduring all of Brooklyn’s seasons.
Last month, the artist and a team of volunteers spent two weeks weaving branches into spiraling structures and build the sculpture on site.
Dougherty poses that the 20-foot-tall sculpture’s organic form beckons to man’s primordial propensity for sticks and weaving.
“No one teaches kids how to play with sticks,” said the artist. “They just do. It’s innate.”
Patrick Dougherty’s “Natural History” sculpture at Brooklyn Botanic Garden [1000 Washington Ave. at Montgomery Street in Crown Heights, (718) 623-7200].
