Lawn Garnish

Years ago, in the days before children and other commitments, my husband and I took a lot of long bike rides in the country where I was always charmed and intrigued by the yards we would pass by and the extensive array of things determined appropriate for the front lawn.  

There were the inevitable wishing wells and lawn jockeys, the kissing Dutch children in their wooden shoes, the bloomered backsides of grandmas weeding, the geese wearing bonnets, and cartoon characters including Wiley Coyote in hot pursuit of the Road Runner, Roger Rabbit, and Bugs Bunny, and even the California Raisins. I always thought this was an American thing, that is, until on a trip to the Aeolian Islands off the coast of Sicily, I noted that Snow White and the seven dwarves seemed to be favorite features in the locals' gardens.

My snapshots could never really capture the charm of lawn ornaments (nor was I willing to venture very close to get the best photo). I thought I should venture forth some day with a better camera and create a coffee table book of these bits of ornamentation. But of course, I never did. In the digital world of today, this would be a good topic for Instagram but again, this seems like a much bigger commitment than I am willing to make.

My fascination with what I affectionately call lawn garnish never abated though nor apparently people's desire to decorate their yards with all manner of humorous tableaux. And while the DC variety tends to be on the smaller side (as befits the smaller yards), my fellow Washingtonians are clearly up to the task. Here's the latest of what I've seen on my walks over the past few months.

There's a whole other category of art created in alleyways and along back fences, but that is a subject for another day.

Beyond Granite: Pulling Together

The National Mall is such an iconic spot, the beating heart of tourism in DC and known to millions more through television and film. It's also been the site where news has been made including Marian Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after being barred from the DAR's Constitution Hall due to her race, and Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech" delivered during the March on Washington 60 years ago today.  In addition to the monuments honoring those who died in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, it's been the place where the AIDS quilt was first displayed in 1987 and where a sea of white flags memorialized the hundreds of thousands who had died of Covid as of October 2021.

More joyous moments have also taken place here, including the Fourth of July Fireworks and the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival. For the locals, it's an inviting space to ride a bike; take a run; and play frisbee, softball, volleyball, and even polo (on the adjacent Potomac Park grounds). Countless engagement photos have been taken among the cherry trees, particularly at the DC War Memorial tucked between the Reflecting Pool and Independence Avenue.

But surprisingly it has not been used for curated installations of public art, that is until now.  Pulling Together, an exhibition of six large works stretching from the Lincoln Memorial to 12th Street, is the first. Billed as an effort to bring untold stories to the Mall, it's part of a larger initiative, Beyond Granite.

To be honest, I often let laziness keep me away from the Mall. Although it's only about 5 miles from my house to the Lincoln Memorial by car, it's not that easy to access on public transportation and parking is pretty scarce. (That said, access to the Capitol, Smithsonian museums, and the Washington Monument are an easy Metro ride plus short walk away.) But last week, I took advantage of a spectacular, rare August day with moderate temperatures and low humidity to take a look. It wasn't easy to capture all the pieces with an iPhone but here's a sampling of what I saw.  

First up was Of Thee We Sing by vanessa german, a Black queer artist, whose work focuses on "the healing realms of intimacy, tenderness, and human wholeness."  This evocation of Marian Anderson is made of resin and steel, her skirt fashioned from blue bottles, with mirrored hands rising up to support her.  At its base, we see the audience of Black Washingtonians who came out that Easter Sunday to hear her sing.

Wendy Red Star's The Soil You See is nestled in Constitution Gardens, on the Mall's north side. The glass thumbprint is covered with the names of indigenous tribal leaders who ceded their lands, not with their names but with a thumbprint or X.  The leaders here are from Red Star's own Apsaalooke (Crow) Nation.  The setting, next to a small monument to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, makes a statement as well.

Derrick Adams' America's Playground is just that -- a fully operational playground that evokes Black joy as well as the desegregation of DC's own public playgrounds in 1954 using archival photos of children playing in previously all-white Edgewood Park. On my visit, I saw two sisters enjoying themselves -- climbing on bars and playing a xylophone, a welcome respite from all the other nearby spaces where visitors are advised not to touch, and certainly not to climb.

Pulling Together continues through September 18.  The exhibition website is rich with information about the artists and their work. You can also find out more about the history of the Mall itself.  If you're local, get yourself down there soon.

Leonardo at MLK

We don't have free universal health care or higher education but one thing we do have in Washington are plenty of free museums and exhibitions. Although you may be thinking of the various Smithsonian museums (and you should -- they are great!), there are multiple other venues with intriguing and thought provoking offerings.  For example, at the MLK Library, the flagship of the city's public libraries, you can now view 12 original drawings from Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus, a collection of the great man's drawings and notes done between 1478 and 1519.  These are small pen and ink or pencil works detailing various mechanical works. It's a tiny gem of an exhibit that will make you wonder at the man's genius and marvel that he once held these pieces of paper in his hands.  And while you are there, check out the other exhibits as well as the beautifully refurbished building designed by Mies van de Rohe.

Imagining the Future is open to the public seven days a week through August 20th.

Barbie

I wasn't much of a doll person as a kid, and I never had a Barbie. I did have a Penny Brite who was kind of an off-brand Skipper:  no curves, no boyfriends, and many fewer outfits and accessories. My kids never had Barbies either, that is until my husband after relating this (perhaps interpreted as bragging) to his siblings, my older daughter was mysteriously gifted three or four of them, including Tooth Fairy Barbie,  Working Girl Barbie (with laptop, file folders and a skirt that reversed from pencil to pouffy for the perfect day-into-night transformation) and another who could only be described in her Daisy Dukes and midriff as Hooker Barbie.  

So I can't really get into the whole hoopla around the Barbie movie coming out this week or the idea of dressing myself or redecorating my house with the Barbiecore aesthetic. But as a longtime appreciator of lawn garnish (more on that in posts to come), I am impressed by the creativity and hard work of the residents of 1454 Q Street NW whose Barbie Pond has its own Instagram account and an everchanging display of Barbies at work and play.  

This week, Barbie has on her signature pink and white checked dress, looking more ready to go to the movies than to the beach with Ken in his pink convertible. I'm not totally sure about the army of Barbies in the pond below the house but at least they look like they are having fun. 

The other day, she and her friends were serving on the Supreme Court. Think of the decisions that they would hand down. Perhaps life in plastic would be fantastic.

Happy Pride

 

Art In Situ

A tip of the hat to my younger child, who walks a good mile each way to school each morning (and back in the afternoon), for pointing out these fascinating sculptures hanging in the yard of a house several blocks over.  I don't know who lives there but I sure admire their sense of whimsy.

This mobile appears to be made from trays:

This one from barbecue grills (if you know your math or if you've read The Phantom Tollbooth, you'll recognize this shape as a dodecahedron:

And this one (a bit on the dark side) of umbrellas:

Who needs a museum when you've got neighbors like this?

Jumping for Joy

If you found yourself on New York Avenue over the past few months, you might have done a double take after seeing these colorful ladies in action.  They're the work of French artist Niki de Saint Phalle whose whimsical sculptures make the Stravinsky Fountain near Paris's Pompidou Centre so memorable.  On a gray day (as many of them have been lately), these zaftig but nimble souls from Saint Phalle's "Nana" series certainly cheered the streetscape.  If you want to see them for yourself, act quickly.  The installation, part of the neighboring National Museum of Women in the Arts New York Avenue Sculpture Project, runs only through the end of October.