Last Saturday was the opening reception for the second installment of “Sculpture @ Sylvester Manor,” an outdoor exhibition experienced on foot via a walking tour throughout the grounds of the historic house and educational farm, Sylvester Manor (80 North Ferry Road, Shelter Island, 631-749-0626).
Showcasing works crafted from nearly two dozen East End artists, the exhibition, curated by Tom Cugliani, contains sculptures that are all centrally focused around the famous John Milton epic poem “Paradise Lost.” Cugliani, a resident of Shelter Island and 35-year veteran of the New York City art world, also curated last year’s exhibition. This year, he says, he had a bit more time to think about the meaning behind the exhibition.
“I used John Milton’s poem ‘Paradise Lost’ as an organizing sort of theme,” he says. “In large part, it’s the retelling of the creation story and then the fall from grace of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, having eaten the fruit from the tree of knowledge. And what that did was that it conferred upon them mortality, as opposed to immortality, which in turn gave them free will and self determination.”
According to Cugliani, the poem was written by Milton after English statesman Oliver Cromwell’s government had failed, noting the poem can also be understood as an allegory for the loss of Cromwell’s utopian Commonwealth society.
Curator Tom Cugliani says participating artists are local to the East End, within a range of about 30 or 35 miles. (Photo credit: Emily Toy)
“It’s all interesting because it coincides exactly with the time [Nathaniel] Sylvester [original owner of Sylvester Manor], came to Shelter Island to operate it as a provisioning plantation to provide food and livestock to Barbados sugar plantations,” Cugliani says.
Themes from the poem are very apparent in some works, while others are more subtle. Some pieces heavily utilize the natural surroundings offered by the Manor’s 200-plus acres, while others are more modern. Art installations range from ceramics that look like mushrooms on a tree, to 10-feet tall white steel flowers, to circles woven with denim, to upside umbrellas and audio work.
Participating artists include Irish-born painter and Roisin Bateman, painter and illustrator Ella Mahoney, visual artist and sculptor Ned Smyth, interdisciplinary artist and educator Allan Wexler, and Shinnecock Indian Nation member and creator of indigenous music Jeffrey Pegram, to name a few.
The exhibition will be open for all to see every day from dusk to dawn until September 14. To download the app for the self-guided walking tour, click here. Guided tours are also available on select dates. Click here to learn more.
