Osage Park Tall Grass
Tall Grass was made for permanent display for Osage Park in Bentonville, AR. The 26’ tall solar powered and metal tube sculpture is part of the Walton Family Foundation collection.
Tall Grass
I created Tall Grass to connect to Osage Park's unique environment. I wanted to make something that made me feel like I was a wetland creature looking up through the water at the tall grass.
Osage Park contains twelve acres of designated wetland, an ecosystem where water covers the soil for most of the year. The park was designed to preserve the Bentonville AR part of the Illinois River Watershed for future generations. A previous version of this sculpture is installed on the shores of another wetland area in Silver Lake, MN.
I made this sculpture to be both beautiful and functional: at night, the solar globes light up, attracting moths and their natural predators. I think of this work as an opportunity for the community to learn and gather around ideas of the environment, water systems, and energy production. I created another sculpture for Bentonville, an artwork made from recycled plastic called Sammy the Sea Monkey, at the Scott Family Amazeum.
The Installation Process
Installing the base
The art handlers Oz Art NWA, helped in the installation process. Osage Park is a wetland landscape. I created a base that acts like snowshoes, to keep the sculpture stable. The base was buried three feet underground, with two feet of poles sticking out. The base poles are labeled and match the tall 20’ or longer poles.
Adding the poles
The curved poles with the attached solar lights were placed on the ground connecting poles. All the parts were bolted in place
