Tag

emerald necklace conservancy

Lavendar Ruins at Fog X FLO

By |

Fog x FLO: Fujiko Nakaya on the Emerald Necklace

Organized by the Conservancy with curator Jen Mergel, this FREE public art presentation is on view every day, hourly from dawn to dusk, from August 11 through October 31. Learn how to visit!

The Conservancy welcomes to Boston and Brookline Fujiko Nakaya’s first extended citywide exhibition of multiple “fog sculptures,” marking her five-decade career with works at five sites along the historic urban parks that link more than a dozen neighborhoods and provide a natural, recreational and cultural conduit for the community. Created in response to the landmarked waterways and landscapes designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (FLO), Nakaya’s “climate responsive” shape-shifting, pure water forms invite visitors to immerse themselves in the art, experience nature anew, and appreciate the vital role of the Emerald Necklace in our city’s history, present, and future.

Nakaya calls fog “the most generous medium” and has collaborated for decades with artists, musicians, designers and more to transform her fog sculptures to  “fog performances.” Artists in the Boston area are welcome to submit proposals for events. Check our calendar for a schedule of fog events!

Lavender Ruins

An evening concert sound installation by Neil Leonard made in response to Fog x Ruins, Fujiko Nakaya’s site-specific fog sculpture for Franklin Park’s Overlook Shelter Ruins, the site where Elma Lewis invited Duke Ellington to perform annually for Playhouse in the Park.

Leonard’s composition fills the site of Nakaya’s dancing fog and lighting design by Shiro Takatani, with sound that also pays tribute to the visionary concepts of Fujiko Nakaya and the sonic imagination of Duke Ellington. The work revisits selected themes by Ellington including Lady of the Lavender Mist, The Kissing Mist, Atmosphere (Moon Mist), A Blue Fog That You Can Almost See Through (Transblucency), The Fog That Clouds It (Schwiphti). As these titles suggest, the music is atmospheric, lush and mist-like. The sound is reminiscent of Duke Ellington’s Boston-area born saxophonists, Harry Carney and Johnny Hodges, who recorded these themes with Ellington, and performed with his orchestra in the Ruins.

This 20-minute sound installation, playing at 7:00pm and 8:00pm, comprises an array of speakers located Overlook Shelter Ruins that surround the fog sculpture and audience.