Introduction Glenn Adamson Words Laura Ellen Bacon Photography Carlton Davis
Published in No 21
A mighty wave of willow rises in the woods. It accumulates gradually, as natural things do, strand by strand, twist by twist. Yet this extraordinary apparition is very much the work of human hands: to be specific, the skilled, strong hands of Laura Ellen Bacon. Over the past two decades, she herself has been a steadily larger phenomenon in British art, known for her subtle yet seismic forms both in willow and other materials, including hardwood and fieldstone.
Her latest creation, entitled Gathering My Thoughts, is part of Ground/Work 2025, an exhibition of six commissioned outdoor sculptures at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. It is the successor to a similar project hosted by the museum in 2020–21, this time with a focus on craft. For this edition, I selected artists from Britain, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Switzerland, and the USA. Collectively, they demonstrate that the most sturdily traditional of artistic premises can be reimagined in new and surprising ways.
Bacon’s monumental sculpture, like the others in Ground/Work, will be on view for a full year, through four seasons. It can be seen for free by anyone, anytime, even in the middle of the night. One might say, though, that its first audience is the forest itself. Even as Bacon was building it, the tidal construction of Ohio-grown willow was becoming a habitat for insects. It will doubtless go on to be a nest for birds, a burrow for small mammals. In this daily journal, kept by the artist at the request of Upstate Diary, we follow her own journey as she brought her sculpture to life.
THURSDAY, 1ST MAY
Logs were positioned with assistance from Dominique and Jon. First sight of a salamander, the curled wet-looking tail just visible under a plate of bark.
The carpet of accumulated leaves was raked away and the exposed earth and clearing had a good sense of potential.
Willow sorted and many bundles soaked in the tank in the tent.
Some bundles in the tank, about 170 bundles standing, airing in the tent. Many bundles still in the crate which we haven’t unloaded completely yet.
MONDAY 5th MAY.
The work started with a clay model. “The sculpture is inspired by the pattern of time seen in the growth rings of decomposing fallen trees that surround the work in the woodland, and the shelf-like layers of fungi that grow from them. The work represents each day of labor, and the shape allows me to stand within every part of the sculpture as it was being made. I’ve spent time in each part — within each layer. I wanted it to feel that it had grown from the woodland floor.”
TUESDAY, 6TH MAY.
Bears! Mother bear moving around the area very calmly and slowly. Amazing to see. Lots of gazes from her while I work, her two cubs up a nearby tree.
Enjoying the slow density being made in the work and the promise of deep crevices in-between the layers.
Continue reading in issue 21.
Ground/Work 2025 is on view through Oct. 12, ‘26 at The Clark.