The residency is a unique collaboration between the Westport Cultural Council (WCC) and the Westport Land Conservation Trust (WLCT) made possible by the generous support of the Helen Ellis Trust. Each artist in residence will immerse themselves in the beauty of the park landscape to create separate public installations for visitors to enjoy. This year, two artists are featured in the landscape, learn more below!
Hanna Vogel (June 2022), Instagram: @hanna_c_vogel, Website: hannavogel.com
Hanna Vogel is an artist and educator living in Philadelphia, PA. She grew up in rural Northern California and received a BFA from the California College of the Arts and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. In her work, she uses craft-based materials and techniques in non-traditional ways to make sculptures and installations that explore aspects of entropy in the natural world. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including at The Huntington Museum of Art, The Spartanburg Art Museum, The Delaware Contemporary, The National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute, and the Biblioteca Henestrosa in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has presented at conferences and published papers internationally and has received fellowships/grants from Yaddo, the California College of the Arts, I-Park, Sculpture Space, The Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Foundation, and Lighten International Artist Exchange Program among others.
Artist Statement
I create imaginary landscapes and growths to investigate the effects of entropy on our environments. I combine paper pulp with hand-woven steel wire to create unfamiliar forms and textures that evoke growth, decay, and the tenuousness of our surroundings. By referencing craft traditions and natural processes of dissolution, my work addresses aspects of existence on the edge of potential destruction. The physical and connotative properties of my materials speak of the possibility of their demise—a wrinkled, skin-like coating of paper is stained and stretched by its rusted steel wire skeleton. My work asserts the craft-based primacy of the handmade, grounding itself in the physical world on which we all ultimately rely.
Combined with this materiality, the scale and visual delicacy of my work allude to spatial and physical considerations of human bodies. The size and placement of these objects compared to the body describe the nature of their relationship. Some works loom down from above as if sitting in judgement or, alternately, being elevated above the destructive reach of human hands. Others strive to coexist, overcoming the internal tension between the vivacity embodied by their forms and the decay implied by their materials. By openly displaying their own physical vulnerabilities, these objects underscore the precocity of our surrounding ecosystems. In doing so, my work aims to cultivate compassion for the physical world around us and for our own impermanent selves.
Andy Moerlein (August 2021), Instagram: @andymoerlein, Website: Andymoerlein.com
Moerlein is an internationally exhibited sculptor. His work has been shown in museums, sculpture gardens, and galleries from Alaska to New York, Switzerland to Peru. Moerlein has an extensive resume of public art works and site-specific monumental outdoor sculptures. Mr. Moerlein has been an arts advocate, gallery director, educator, and professional juror for over 30 years. He has taught in college programs, presented workshops nationally and internationally, curated panel discussions and been a Visiting Artist and Guest Lecturer. He has been a teacher and gallery director at the Derryfield School in Manchester NH for 20 years and is currently teaching at Hampstead Academy. Moerlein holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MFA from Cornell University. He lives and works in Maynard MA and Boston MA.
Artist Statement
Natural forces like geology and glaciation are deeply embedded in Westport’s exceptional landscape. For his residency Moerlein created handmade stones and sapling structures that mimic the landscape and hint at the powerful glaciers that ground hard edges into rolling contours and hauled boulders thousands of miles.
This residency features sculptures informed by Moerlein’s enthusiasm for scholars’ rocks. This Chinese tradition of collecting and displaying rocks involves the elegant presentation of precious and adored stones for contemplation and enjoyment. For the Westport Woods Conservation Park, Moerlein built his stones using a variety of experimental media such as Styrofoam, bamboo, shrink-wrap. They are colored with both natural and surprising colors. Andy’s goal is both sensual and conceptual.