MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A new seasonal exhibit is coming to the Memphis Botanic Garden this weekend.
Artist Kristine Mays created Rich Soil at the Garden. The exhibition features 29 sculptures in seven groupings placed throughout the 96-acre garden.
Mays said Rich Soils honors people who have come before her on earth. She said she was inspired by the movements and gestures of Alvin Ailey’s dance composition “Revelations.”
The Botanic Garden said in a news release, “Each sculpture consists of thousands of pieces of wire hooked and looped together to create these intriguing forms which pay honor to ancestors – those that walked, lived on, and tended to this land – to the lives that have been overlooked and “forgotten” within our history. These forms deliver a message of strength while challenging how we view ourselves and others. Within the confines of hard metal wire is a sense of resilience and perseverance – a need to push forward and thrive. The work also speaks to identity – the question of who we are, what we can do with our lives, and the impact our lives have on the world. The implied movement in the works evokes expressive gestures through the delicate balance between perceived fragility and realized strength.”
The exhibition opens to the public Friday, May 5, 2023, and runs through Oct. 1, 2023.