Art in the Park

There’s a new art installation in Hermann Park and its environmental structure dictates that it will remain until the elements reduce it to a state of collapse and it is taken away.

Artist Patrick Dougherty’s “Stickworks” was constructed over a period of three weeks and went live Friday, January 24. Dougherty put a series of saplings as the core framework and then, with volunteers, the entire skeleton was filled in with twigs and saplings to form a maze with pathways and windows. Some of the paths are pint sized while others are tall enough to stand upright. The saplings were harvested from “Generation Park, a master-planned enterprise in northeast Houston.”

The project was underwritten by the Hermann Park Conservancy and marks the 100^th anniversary of the 445-acre park. “Stickworks” is located at the south end of the park’s reflecting pool. Additionally another sculpting, “Wind Waves” by Yvonne Domenge, a fifteen-foot red metal orb sits to the north of the reflecting pool in an esplanade between the park and the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Other objects of art will appear throughout the year in Hermann Park. It is estimated that over 6-million people visit Hermann Park on a yearly basis.

— Michael Bergeron

by Michael Bergeron