BMA : Exhibitions : Patrick Dougherty

About Patrick Dougherty

For three weeks, beginning on October 21, North Carolina-based, internationally renowned sculptor Patrick Dougherty was in residence at the Beach Museum of Art. Dougherty created a large-scale, temporary, site-specific work of sculpture in the grove on the campus side of the museum's grounds. The commissioned work is constructed of locally-gathered saplings. Dougherty, who was born in Oklahoma but raised in North Carolina, earned a B.A. from the University of North Carolina in 1967 and a M.A. in hospital and health administration in 1969 from the University of Iowa. In 1975, Dougherty returned to the University of North Carolina to study art history and sculpture, working as a carpenter and stonemason to support himself while in school. By the early 1980s, he was seriously committed to making sculpture.

Much of Dougherty's early work was in clay, a material he found attractive because of the way in which it demands a somewhat improvisational approach to handling. Dougherty believes a piece of sculpture is not something for which all of the problems of construction are to be worked out in advance of its creation. To the contrary, the creation of sculpture is, for Dougherty, a process involving a series of bi-directional responses between artist and material, a process in which chance has a significant stake. Eventually, Dougherty's desire to create large-scale work led him to abandon clay as a material and turn to saplings.

In his youth, Dougherty often explored the forests around Southern Pine, North Carolina, where he discovered that sticks, branches, limbs, and other arboreal elements have a natural tendency to entwine and entangle, a quality that nest-building animals like birds have long used to advantage. After experimenting with some saplings from along his driveway, Dougherty realized that he could successfully translate his ideas to this newfound medium. Like clay, saplings demand a give and take between maker and material, requiring the artist to continually adjust during the construction process. They are also particularly well suited for the expression of Dougherty's personal aesthetic, an aesthetic that places a premium on drawing. Conceptually, Dougherty thinks of his body as a drawing implement, such as a pencil. Using a personal vocabulary of mark making (lines, shading, hatching, etc.), Dougherty draws with the saplings, creating his large organic and architectural structures.

www.stickwork.net

Throughout the duration of Dougherty's residency at the museum, the public is invited to observe the construction process. It is anticipated that the sculpture will remain in place for eighteen to twenty-four months before being removed.

More information can be found at www.stickwork.net