A next outdoor sculpture exhibition has been announced for the Morton Arboretum, to be built in spring 2023 and launched in time for summer. Titled “Of the Earth,” it will be created by Polish American artist Olga Ziemska with a projected opening date of May 26, 2023, the Friday of Memorial Day weekend.
Much like the sculpture shows that have come before it, the exhibition will consist of five large-scale works, this time built almost entirely out of wood and other natural materials gathered from the Morton Arboretum grounds. They will be built by the artist and her crew mostly on-site over the course of several weeks. All will be brand new works, though one will be an adaptation of “Stillness in Motion” which has been displayed elsewhere before. This will be the largest such exhibition Ziemska has done.
“Stillness in Motion” is built from tree branches, cut, bound and stacked in such a way that, seen straight on, the trimmed ends depict a female form, the branches spreading out behind suggesting the illusion of speed. That one will greet visitors near the entrance. “That’s kind of Olga’s signature work,” said Preston Bautista, the Arboretum’s vice president of learning and engagement. “It’ll be like a billboard for the rest of the exhibition.”
For those keeping track, “Of the Earth” will take the place of the current show of artworks on the grounds, Daniel Popper’s “Human+Nature,” which was installed in the spring of 2021 and will officially close at the end of February. The Arboretum intends to follow this every-two-years refresh going forward, Bautista said.
“Part of the reason we do this is to drive attendance,” he said, “but another part is to give all kinds of artists the opportunity to show their work.”
Ziemska, whose family is from Poland, is based out of Cleveland and first came to the notice of the Morton Arboretum through a show she did at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Ohio. A lot of her work has to do with the female form, Bautista said, “not in the way of a self portrait, but from her lived experience.”
The five works will be placed around the Arboretum’s 1,700 acres much in the same places as the works in “Human+Nature,” and before that the famous trolls. Though the west suburban nature preserve has had sculptures on its grounds before, it was “Troll Hunt” that drew thousands of visitors between summer 2018 and spring 2021 and changed the Arboretum’s game plan — much as the hugely successful “Illumination” did, and does, for its winter months.
Those locations also balance easy accessibility and the encouragement for visitors to get out of their cars and see more of the grounds.
“Our hope, and what we saw in ‘Human+Nature,’ is that people will want to get closer,” Bautista said. “Yes, they can see them from their cars, but they’ll want to go up and interact.”
Along with “Stillness in Motion,” another work will be a variation on Ziemska’s “Mind Eye,” built in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. There will be no cutaway window, as in that work, but it will be similarly constructed from tree trunk cross-section “cookies” and will depict two heads facing each other.
Size of each work will be roughly 20 feet high, or wide, smaller than the trolls but on par with Popper’s sculptures. Ziemska submitted sketches soon after a first in-person visit last spring and approvals and conversations with the Arboretum proceeded from there.
A lot of factors go into selecting an artist, Bautista said. Beyond just working will thematically with the Arboretum — “Of the Earth” has an obvious focus on nature — the artist’s work has to be on a large scale and hold up to the Chicago-area weather over a couple years. (Popper’s works were built mostly out of fiberglass-reinforced concrete.) And they have to be within the Arboretum’s budget for such a show, totaling anywhere from $350,000 to $500,000.
Bautista says they’d like to find a local artist to exhibit in 2025 — those interested can contact Head of Exhibitions Amy Scott at ascott@mortonarb.org.
For Ziemska, her connection to the Chicago area’s Polish community will also be a plus; Bautista hopes to put on special events such as talks from the artist in Polish.
Like the exhibitions that came before it, “Of the Earth” will be free for visitors with general admission.
As the works themselves, they won’t be as cute as the trolls, no. Bautista, who was recently hired away by Morton Arboretum from the Indianapolis Museum of Art, says the art will find its own audience, just as did “Human+Nature.” (Popper’s sculptures, by the way, will remain on view at least through the end of February; some may then be acquired by private collectors or move on to exhibitions elsewhere.) Select parts of Ziemska’s sculptures will be created in the studio but otherwise built on site, including with volunteer help.
“I’d really like to do higher level art here,” he said. “Something that adds to Chicago as an art destination.”
dgeorge@chicagotribune.com
