There are many facets to Burlington’s South End Art Hop besides open studios. There is the juried show, and side events such as a fashion show, music, and Friday night parties raging from Maple Street to Flynn Avenue. And then there are group shows curated by studios and private exhibition spaces. But one element to the Hop that may get overlooked, is the outdoor sculpture component. Starting opening weekend and for the next few weeks, Pine Street is turned into a veritable sculpture garden comprised of a broad range of pieces - from the humorous to the heavy.
James Teuscher’s Puente Dos, at Champlain Chocolates is a graceful large scale piece, created from a pair of long segments of wood angled towards the sky, and a somewhat heavier span resting in the intersecting center of the two angled pieces. It's like a delicate catapult pointed towards the heavens, and was awarded a well deserved first prize in the Outdoor Sculpture / Public Art category. A rusty recycled metal lion titled Alfred was sited in front of Conant Metal and Light. The light-hearted big cat was a playful crowd-pleaser created by Tyler Venditouli.
Michael J. Nedell's Danse took third prize in Outdoor Sculpture / Public Art. His ten-foot high white abstraction rises like a single flame yet curves biomorphically while it moves with an upward motion. A white sphere balances atop like like a ball on the head of a seal. Seed by Ethan Bond-Watts received second prize. It's can be found outside of RLPhoto on Sears Lane.
Weathered metal is also the media for Axel Stohlberg’s collection of a dozen small house forms called Community. Each little house is perched on a long vertical rod. It’s like a neighborhood of birdhouses. The spindly rods create quirky verticals clumped like a stand of tall grass.
Permanent public works in the South End are listed in the Art Hop
catalogue, along with this year’s eleven pieces specifically installed
for 2012.The juried outdoor sculpture show is an exciting collection to seek out and enjoy. No doubt in 2013 it will be equally lively.
- Marc Awodey
Editor's note: According to Mark Wascow, SEABA's president, this year's 1st prize winner in the Outdoor Sculpture / Public Art category, James Teuscher, achieved something special. He is now the only person to ever win two 1st Place Prizes and the only person to ever win four juried awards at the South End Art Hop. - Meg Brazill
