Environment

Title: Environment
LC Subject: Sculpture Outdoor sculpture Cement Cement sculpture Basalt Bronze Bronze sculpture Granite basalt (basic igneous rock) bronze (metal) granite (rock) sandblasting sculpture (visual work)
Creator: Boyden, Frank Riley, Michael
Description: A detail view of one of the rocks, featuring a round reflective object inserted into the rock. The unidentified man taking the photograph of this rock is seen on the reflective surface. Frank Boyden; boulder with mirror; garden for forensic psychiaric bldg salem Frank Boyden was born 1942, in Portland, OR. He attended Yale University, School of Art, achieving a M.F.A. and B.F.A., in Painting, 1968. In 1965, he attended Colorado College, where he received a B.A. in Art. The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Mid-Valley Arts. You may visit their website at: http://www.oregonlink.com/arts/index.html
View: detail
Location: Oregon State Hospital >> Marion County >> Oregon >> United States Marion County >> Oregon >> United States
Street Address: 2600 Center St. N. E., Salem, Oregon
Date: 1975/2012
Identifier: 1992_salem_forensic-psych-bldg_01_a03
Item Locator: BOY:92-1
Accession Number: 1992_salem_forensic-psych-bldg_01_a03
Rights: In Copyright
Dc Rights Holder: Boyden, Frank ; Riley, Michael
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Measurements: 30 x 70 feet
Material: Sculpture sandblasted granite, bronze, basalt, cement
Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Primary Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Relation: 1992 Salem Forensic Psychiatric Building 1992_salem_forensic-psych-bldg
Has Version: slide; color
Institution: Oregon Arts Commission University of Oregon
Note: Oregon State Hospital Forensic Psychiatric Building is also know as "Building 50."
Color Space: RGB
Biographical Information: Although the incised granite monolith and granite and bronze pieces might be viewed separately as the "art" in a garden, they were indeed made as integral parts of the whole. They cannot be seperated from the rest of the garden environment. In making this space we wanted to create an environment which peacefully gave permission to those who used it to examine their senses in ways not possible in the hospital atmosphere. We purposely made a set of different spaces and micro-environments in which people could more or less isolate themselves. This was a challenge since the entire area covers only 30 by 70 feet. We tried to make all the materials challenging and demanding to the senses. We used discarded old growth beams showing several hundred years of growth rings. Huge basalt stones were hand picked for each space with considerations given to specific textural patterns, fracture lines, and curvatures suitable for seating or lying down upon. The large granite pieces, the largest stones in the space, were chosen for their scale so that they would dwarf a human. These large stones were treated with sandblasted drawings. These markings opened up the surfaces of the granite revealing different colors and the textural differences demand close inspection. Such inspection brings huge stones down to human scale. In the same way, additions of small bronze pieces into a large stone demand that the stone be physically encountered in order to experience and handle these small elements. one rock was plumbed for a small fountain. Several large basalt pieces had a five-inch diameter core-drilled holes in them. One of these was set up so that the afternoon sun shown through the hole and produced a brilliant circle of light on a wall. Once hole was fitted with a stainless steel mirror placed six inches inside. This mirror reflects movement outside the stone but also calls into question the interior nature of that particular stone. Indeed the whole atmosphere was thought about from the point of view of how we could reveal and expose the interior materials. (Boyden, 1992)