Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Catherine Widgery graduated from Yale University in 1975. Her sculptures beckon to the senses of viewers because of their integration of light and wind.
Widgery’s public art projects update the relationship between nature and human culture and encourage its integration with the environment. This is the case for Light Storm (2005), produced at the Mesa Arts Centre in Arizona, and Pass Through The Land (2001), in Denver, Colorado.
Artwork description
A dome formed of steel pieces shaped like beaver pelts and organized in a swarm around an open central point is installed in René-Lévesque Park. Twelve masts anchored in the ground surround or support this structure, which is erected on a circle of slabs. On the slabs, maps of waterways used for trade in New France are represented in bas-relief.
The work’s motifs are inspired by history: the animal pelts in the hut evoke the fur trade, whereas the design on the slabs depicts the watercourses used for their transport.
Passing Song is inseparable from the experience that it provokes. It invites the public to take refuge under the dome, which amplifies the sound of the wind passing through it. Confronted with this enhanced sensorial reality, viewers paradoxically enter into contact with culture and history. In fact, “Passing Song” is a Cherokee expression that refers to the wind heard when a spirit leaves a person’s body to take flight in nature. The artwork refers to the invisible trace of this evanescent memory.