JACKIE FERRARA

(AMERICAN, BORN 1929)

Laumeier Project, 1981
red cedar, zinc-coated carriage bolts
187 x 228 x 261 inches
Laumeier Sculpture Park Commission, with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, Dr. and Mrs. Bernard Adler and an anonymous donor

The stacked, red cedar construction of Jackie Ferrara’s pyramidal structure Laumeier Project, 1981, steps progressively skyward. It initially resembles a Mayan temple, but it is also a cognitive puzzle playing with interlocked positive and negative shapes. Moving back and forth between deciphering the seen and unseen, light through slit openings casts rhythmic patterns that create an aesthetic surprise. Ferrara is dedicated to making art in public places using the language of design and architecture to create experiential spaces for the viewer. This evocation of a little woodland sanctuary was the first “site-specific” sculpture to be commissioned by Laumeier and designed for its current location.

Sculpture Interaction Guideline: Walk, But Do Not Climb

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Sculptor and public artist Jackie Ferrara was born in Detroit in 1929. She has explored relationships between sculpture and architecture in her wood constructions, which have evolved from indoor pieces to increasingly large-scale outdoor works. Ferrara incorporates concrete and natural elements like rock, wood, water, trees and grass in the construction of courtyards, terraces, walkways and other structures emphasizing geometric design. Her public architectural and landscape works can be seen throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. Ferrara is represented in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk, Denmark; the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.