Brawn and Brains

This week’s column is the last in a four-part series that highlights art collections in unexpected settings in and around Santa Fe.

The weather is warming up — it will be time for picnics soon — and there is a place near Santa Fe where you can picnic on the grass between big, bronze sculptures: Shidoni. The eight acres of sculpture gardens at Shidoni are not public spaces, but they are open to the public any day of the year during daylight hours, making Shidoni an “art option” on the days when galleries and museums are closed, or on holidays when everything is closed.

Shidoni, the bronze foundry, art galleries and sculpture gardens in Tesuque, must be evaluated on its own terms.

Shidoni is a family-run business, the nearly 40-year passion of its founder, Tommy Hicks. His son, Scott Hicks, is the current president and CEO.

This is not a family educated in America’s best art schools, where they would have written art history papers or read contemporary theory and art criticism. This is, instead, a family that loves the hard-core practice of pouring hot, lava-like metal. They love the carving, the sculpting, the fire and heat of bronze casting. They love their machines. They get excited by a big, technically complicated project. The folks at Shidoni like to fabricate stuff, and they are happy and successful doing so. They like the problem solving and the craftsmanship. Meaning and message are secondary, and art history and contemporary art discourse are tertiary.

The sculptures are equally spaced within both (there are two) open fields, which is democratic and practical, but what is lacking is attention to site-specificity. And why is that important? Rearranged so that each work relates visually to its surroundings, the individual pieces, and the entire park, would be a more a powerful experience. Shidoni has presented the sculptures as objects placed in whatever space was available in the outdoor showroom instead of thinking of the sculptures as integrated elements in a visual field. An opportunity for showing the work at its full advantage was lost by doing so, as was the opportunity to create an internationally- respected sculpture park. If Shidoni wants to shift its national or international reputation from a good foundry to a good foundry and a world-class sculpture park, it needs to hire an art school-educated curator. Then a marriage of brawn and brains will be formed into something as strong as bronze.

That said, there are pieces worth a second look, and the space is great for an afternoon stroll or a family picnic. It is a place where children can run around and imagine that the sculptures are alien formations, or weapons, or monsters. And it is a place where the educated adult will find a few surprises.

Amongst the mediocre works are some impressive ones, particularly the Richard Serra-like abstractions of John Simms, who along with Dan Rider and Gray Mercer provide some the most conceptually intelligent pieces in the gardens. Mercer’s “Vessel with Slot,” in particular, is a gorgeous work, although it is hidden among many lesser sculptures. A round rust-colored work that sits directly on the ground, it references containers, architecture and boats. It invites the viewer inside and keeps her out at the same time. The surface looks as if it were made with many small sheets of metal welded together, which is visually like the weave of a basket. This work is many things at once and it implies multiple interpretations, and that is what makes it one of the stronger works at Shidoni. (For an equally powerful surprise, go inside the foundry gallery and find the small, tender, minimalist works by Noel Aronov or the skull by Fritz Scholder.)

Two figurative works in the sculpture gardens are, at least, conversation starters. Littleton Alston’s “Wisdom’s Witness” is a towering piece — a box topped by an armless torso, under which sits several busts. It is technically impressive and mind-bogglingly odd. It is also one of the best deals at Shidoni if you are currently looking for something unusual for your yard. Alston is an associate professor of sculpture at Creighton University in Omaha.

Jeff Johnson’s figure of a man in a lion suit, crouching and holding a frog, will impress the kids for sure. This is high realism/fantasy/pseudo-spirituality in action — an action-packed moment frozen in something as permanent and solid as bronze. Johnson got his bachelor’s degree in sculpture from the State University of New York-Purchase.

Dozens of artists are represented in Shidoni’s sculpture gardens, including longtime Santa Fe residents like Una Hanbury, and new additions from outside New Mexico, like Esmoreit Koetsier from California. Koetsier creates brightly colored, geometric works, one of which now graces Shidoni’s entrance.

If you decide to schedule your Shidoni picnic for a Saturday, you can also go inside and watch a bronze pouring. After all, that is the part the folks at Shidoni like to talk about the most.

Shidoni

WHAT: Sculpture gardens open every day during daylight hours. Bronze pourings on Saturdays, call for schedule.
WHERE: 1508 Bishops Lodge Road, Tesuque
CONTACT: (505) 988-8001 or www.shidoni.com