25 sculptural installations are dispersed throughout the landscape of the Civic Garden Center and Hauck Botanic Garden. All are by artists involved in the Academy, either as students, alumnae or instructors. The works vary in size, scope and aesthetic, from geometrical, modernist work to conceptual, narrative installations.
Whether one enjoys the individual works or not, each artist nevertheless invites the visitor to reflect upon some aspect of the garden and the relationship of humanity to nature (or gardenized nature).
The exhibition includes a map of the location of each of the works. The visitor has an important choice here. He or she may survey the space first, encountering the placement of the pieces by chance. This option allows one to experience the individuality of each work as the artist may have wished it without it being specifically 'bracketed' as an artwork. The other choice is to follow the map, noting exactly each work according to its author, location etc. In this way one does not 'miss' anything although risks being too easily 'led.' For the beholder of art is not a passive receptacle, but an active and lively creator of the actual experience: this is a simple case in point.
-A.C. Frabetti
Art Academy of Cincinnati: 25th Biennial Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, Civic Garen Center, Hauck Botanic Garden, April 4-26, 2009. On Reading Road between Oak St. and Taft Road.
In Photo: Sheri Besso, Protection, (Date: n.d.). Mixed media.
