deCordova Sculpture Park is nestled along the southern shore of Flint’s Pond in Lincoln, Massachusetts. It is home to 30 acres of lawns, fields, forests, gardens, and terraces and is internationally recognized for its modern and contemporary art throughout the campus.
Along the sprawling greens, visitors can find sculptures and site-specific installations. The park cultivates a conversation around how outdoor art connects with the environment. Artists must create pieces that sustain inclement weather and work symbiotically with the earth.
When visitors arrive at deCordova Sculpture Park, they are given autonomy to choose their own path forward. Up the steps to Linda’s Lawn, visitors can interact with Rain Gates, an installation created in 2000 by Ron Rudnicki. Rain Gates are stone rectangular gates. To journey through all of them, an individual must ascend 20 feet. The climb proves challenging with flowing water (frozen in the wintertime), step stones, and flora that shares the path. The installation intentionally uses organic materials and subtle human intervention to complement the existing landscape at deCordova and enchant nature lovers.
At the edge of Linda’s Lawn, visitors can admire Best of All Possible Worlds, an installation created in 2018 by Saul Meiman. Best of All Possible Worlds includes eight vacuum molded casts of doors arranged in the same format as Meiman’s Brooklyn apartment. Visitors can walk in between the doors to feel the dichotomy of interior and exterior. The piece also alludes to the personal secrets and lived experiences kept hidden in domestic spaces.
Along Waleska’s Way, visitors can find Watershed, an installation created by Andy Goldsworthy in 2019. Watershed is a piece designed to interact with deCordova’s natural environment. The installation is composed of a nine by fifteen foot granite stone sculpture built into the slope of the sculpture park’s pondside hill. Watershed is crafted in the traditional New England style of stone walls and sculptures. Inside the structure stands a drain outlet against the back wall. Stonework forms concentric circles around the drain outlet to evoke the power of water’s energy and pattern. After a heavy rainstorm, visitors can see and hear water runoff pour out from the drain outlet, cultivating a multisensory experience.
On the South Lawn, visitors can revere Two Big Black Hearts, a sculpture created by Jim Dine in 1985. Each heart is 3,200 pounds and is cast from the same mold. Two Big Black Hearts are built from bronze casts of commonplace items, such as hands, faces, seashells, hammers, and other tools. Dine’s hand imprints are also on the sculpture’s surface. The repetition of these items transforms them into personal expression and elicits emotion. For Dine, the heart serves “as a sign that one can care, that there is a constant presence of feeling.”
deCordova Sculpture Park includes 48 installations across its grounds. For more information, visit https://thetrustees.org/place/decordova/.