(OUT)LOOKING, (RE)FRAMING

May 20 — Nov. 27, 2011
Morton Arboretum,
4100 Illinois Highway 53, Lisle.
Photo credit: Tom Nowak
Engineering Consultant: Michael Flynn

During a visit to the site, I was struck by the landscape’s subtle and modest views and the hues in and around the trees and other vegetation. I have always been fascinated by the abstractions created by tree branches and leaves seen against the sky, and this in part inspired this response to the site. For the exhibition, I stationed a teleidoscope on the grounds, providing opportunities for different kinds of reflection and delight in the surrounding natural areas. 

A teleidoscope is a cylindrical viewing device housing a lens at one end, having an arrangement of mirrors in the interior, and providing an open view to the surrounding environment. The optics of a teleidoscope is similar to that of a kaleidoscope, an object familiar to children and adults alike. Peering through the teleidoscope, the viewer will see a composition of fragments made whole into a beautifully colored abstract composition. 

Commissioned for Nature Unframed: Art at the Arboretum, following the exhibition, the teleidoscope became part of the Arboretum’s permanent sculpture collection, sited in the children’s garden area.