Visitors can experience the creative works of North Carolina artist Patrick Dougherty at the Garden this winter. Dougherty’s latest interactive installation, The Magnificent Seven, was constructed in November 2019 at the Garden for all ages to explore. In addition, the exhibit will feature seventeen photographs of Dougherty’s large-scale sculptures and The Orchid Conservatory will be filled with showy orchids in bloom and the Garden’s own woven sculptures inspired by Dougherty’s work. Art & Orchids featuring Stickwork will be open daily Feb. 1 through Mar. 15 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The exhibit is free with general admission or free for Garden Members.
Using minimal tools and a simple technique of bending, interweaving, and fastening together sticks, Dougherty creates works of art inseparable with nature and the landscape. With a dazzling variety of forms intertwined with their context, his sculptures evoke fantastical images of nests, cocoons, cones, castles, and beehives. Constructed on-site using locally sourced materials and local volunteer labor, Dougherty’s sculptures are tangles of twigs and branches that have been transformed into something unexpected and wild, elegant and artful, and often humorous. Sometimes freestanding, and other times wrapping around trees, buildings, railings, and rooms, they are constructed indoors and in nature. As organic matter, the stick sculptures eventually disintegrate and fade back into the landscape.
Over the last thirty years, Dougherty has built more than 300 works throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. His latest installation, The Magnificent Seven, was constructed in November 2019. Visitors can wander through the seven rooms of woven sticks and twigs, peer through the windows and skylights, and let your imagination run wild! In addition to this interactive installation, seventeen photographs of Dougherty’s large-scale sculptures will be on display in the Visitor Pavilion. The sculptures are unique to each site using locally sourced materials and volunteer labor. The Orchid Conservatory will also feature a collection of showy orchids in bloom and the Garden’s own woven sculptures inspired by Dougherty’s work.
General admission for Garden members is free, $14.95 for adults, $12.95 for seniors 60+, and $7.95 for children 2-12. For more information visit www.DSBG.org or call (704) 825-4490.