Patrick Dougherty Site-specific Installation:
Na Hale 'O Waiawi (House of Strawberry Guava)
on view July 22 - March 14, 2005

Internationally acclaimed sculptor Patrick Dougherty is known for large-scale installations that incorporate tree saplings. Working only with these saplings, the North Carolina based artist twists and wraps his medium to create large, organic sculptures. The surrounding environment and its given materials play a significant role in shaping his sculptures. Dougherty often uses saplings gathered near the installation site, adjusting his designs to the different ways local materials bend and respond in his hands.

Dougherty, who has been working actively in his medium since 1982, creates eight to ten site-specific works a year in various locations across the country and internationally. While at The Contemporary Museum, Dougherty utilized guava and rose apple saplings harvested from HoÎomaluhia Botanical Gardens in KaneÎohe to create a unique construction in and around the monkeypod tree on the Museumâs grounds. During the three-week installation of this new piece, Dougherty worked daily with Museum staff and volunteers. The site-specific installation will be on view indefinitely in TCM's gardens.

Dougherty, who originally worked in clay, began experimenting with tree saplings when his desire to build on a large scale could no longer be accommodated by his medium. In working with saplings, he attempts to ãimpose some of the ideas I had associated with clay - fluidity, immediacy, and the ease of applying marks to the surface.ä His sculpture also reveals the influence of elements more commonly associated with drawing, which appear in the linear hatchings and patterns of the branches. At times even whimsical, his sculptures always delight the viewer with the unexpected and mysterious.

The Presentation of Patrick Doughertyâs installation at The Contemporary Museum is made possible in part by the Laila Art Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation, with additional support from American Airlines.

For more information on Patrick Dougherty's work, check out his website at www.stickwork.net.