LINCOLN — After several years of silence, the sounds of creation are returning to sculptures in the wild as artists transform this Montana landscape into sculptures and music the public can watch come to life.
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This fall’s two resident artists first visited the site in the spring to get a feel for the land and the available materials.
One of those artists is Justin Tyler Tate, who has worked across multiple continents.
“I came out here in May to kind of explore and get to know what materials are here and get to know what species live here and kind of build something that hopefully will have a benefit to the surrounding landscape,” Tate said.
Tate's sculpture combines shipping pallets, windfall spruce, and native plants, part of a larger collection of work focused on creating structures that benefit more than just people.
“So architecture built for non-human species that are primarily built to help the surrounding environment or have a greater influence than just the footprint of the structure itself,” Tate added.
Artist and educator Jesse Blumenthal, who is based in Missoula, says his piece is inspired by the way this landscape is managed through fire.
“This is about that process, about human management of the environment and how we can exist within it and coexist with nature in that way,” Blumenthal said.
His sculpture is designed specifically for this location, responding to the way the Forest Service manages the site.
“This piece is meant for this exact site, so it is reacting to the Forest Service and their management of the site and just looking to broaden people’s awareness of what they’re experiencing and where they’re at,” Blumenthal added.
Once complete, the sculptures will join a collection of nearly two dozen pieces spread across 37 acres of forest. The site attracts approximately 50,000 visitors each year.
“But truly, when I talk to visitors from all across the country and all across the world, they often remark that they haven’t seen something quite like this before,” Erin Farris-Olsen, executive director of Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild
Artists will continue working on their pieces through next week, and the public is welcome to watch the transformation happen in real time.
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