Art Review

Sculptor Arden Scott uses no mirrors when she makes, or rather, builds her self-portraits. Fashioned from such mundane materials as twigs, bronze mesh, stones and steel, they do not bear any outward resemblance to the lean, curly-haired 68-year-old artist. Like Jim Dine's bathrobes and Deborah Butterfield's horses, Scott's boats stand as metaphors for the artist - vessels for her thoughts, moods, memories and dreams.

A seasonal rigger at a local boatyard near her home in Greenport, Scott has dedicated some 20 years to the motif. Nautical shapes surfaced even in her early abstract works from the 1960s and '70s, when she was scavenging Dumpsters in lower Manhattan for discarded sails and timbers.

Six of Scott's seafaring craft - suspended from the ceiling, mounted on the wall or elevated on platforms - drift across Dowling College's Anthony Giordano Gallery, presenting an ocean of emotion, form and poetic allusion. There are undercurrents of writers Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson (from whose poetry Scott borrows the title of her 2003 piece "some Wednesday afternoon") and Hart Crane, as well as sculptors David Smith and Julio González.

From the metal-ribbed belly of the 21-foot-long "infinite pacifics" (2003) to the twisting bronze rods that describe the mast and flapping sail of "Taxi Wardance" (2005), her sculptures reflect her intimate understanding of boats. They also document her aesthetic and personal voyages over the past decade.

With their open, skeletal frames, the vessels allow themselves to be filled with our own associations. We can change course - often a tricky proposition, as emphasized by the thorny locust branches that make up the hull of the Nordic-inspired "Ita" (1997), hung from a network of near-invisible wires that cause it to swivel with the air currents. Or we can hover close to the edge in "straight North beyond" (2000), an ephemeral assemblage of diaphanous cloth, screening and pins, with long bamboo shoots balancing precariously across its prow, signaling the instability presented by turning tides.

While "some Wednesday afternoon" takes passengers on a modern journey with its fluid yet economical contours, "Taxi Wardance," sporting the gracefully curved bow of a Viking ship, transports us to another place and time. We can travel through the ages in these patinated gondolas, canoes and skiffs, or even ride the carcasslike boats to the afterlife.

At once intricate and primitive, fierce and fragile, historical and timeless, personal and accessible, Scott's paradoxical vessels infuse one of the oldest genres - maritime art - with new buoyancy.



	Greenport sculptor finds anchor for nautical motif
	BY DEIDRE STEIN GREBEN Special to Newsday September 15, 2006
	Sculptor Arden Scott uses no mirrors when she makes, or rather, builds her self-portraits. Fashioned from such mundane materials as twigs, bronze mesh, stones and steel, they do not bear any outward resemblance to the lean, curly-haired 68-year-old artist. Like Jim Dine's bathrobes and Deborah Butterfield's horses, Scott's boats stand as metaphors for the artist - vessels for her thoughts, moods, memories and dreams. A seasonal rigger at a local boatyard near her home in Greenport, Scott has dedicated some 20 years to the motif. Nautical shapes surfaced even in her early abstract works from the 1960s and '70s, when she was scavenging Dumpsters in lower Manhattan for discarded sails and timbers. Six of Scott's seafaring craft - suspended from the ceiling, mounted on the wall or elevated on platforms - drift across Dowling College's Anthony Giordano Gallery, presenting an ocean of emotion, form and poetic allusion. There are undercurrents of writers Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson (from whose poetry Scott borrows the title of her 2003 piece "some Wednesday afternoon") and Hart Crane, as well as sculptors David Smith and Julio González. From the metal-ribbed belly of the 21-foot-long "infinite pacifics" (2003) to the twisting bronze rods that describe the mast and flapping sail of "Taxi Wardance" (2005), her sculptures reflect her intimate understanding of boats. They also document her aesthetic and personal voyages over the past decade. With their open, skeletal frames, the vessels allow themselves to be filled with our own associations. We can change course - often a tricky proposition, as emphasized by the thorny locust branches that make up the hull of the Nordic-inspired "Ita" (1997), hung from a network of near-invisible wires that cause it to swivel with the air currents. Or we can hover close to the edge in "straight North beyond" (2000), an ephemeral assemblage of diaphanous cloth, screening and pins, with long bamboo shoots balancing precariously across its prow, signaling the instability presented by turning tides. While "some Wednesday afternoon" takes passengers on a modern journey with its fluid yet economical contours, "Taxi Wardance," sporting the gracefully curved bow of a Viking ship, transports us to another place and time. We can travel through the ages in these patinated gondolas, canoes and skiffs, or even ride the carcasslike boats to the afterlife. At once intricate and primitive, fierce and fragile, historical and timeless, personal and accessible, Scott's paradoxical vessels infuse one of the oldest genres - maritime art - with new buoyancy.
	ARDEN SCOTT: BREAKING THE LINE. Through Oct. 8 as part of "Cultural Contributions of Long Island" at Dowling College's Anthony Giordano Gallery, Idle Hour Boulevard, Oakdale. Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sunday, noon-4 p.m. Call 631-244-3016

Greenport sculptor finds anchor for nautical motif

Greenport sculptor finds anchor
for nautical motif