Nests

Last weekend I traveled to the east end of Long Island to give a book talk to the Environmental Alliance of the Hamptons, an engaged, friendly, delightful community of garden and landscape lovers. I had a wonderful time. One long-time member even put me up overnight in his guest house. I discovered after my arrival late Saturday afternoon that he had arranged to take me, after hours, to see LongHouse Reserve, an extraordinary sculpture park and garden created by Jack Lenor Larsen around his home—a well-known destination garden in the New York area but one I’d never visited.

One of Maren Hassinger’s ‘nests’.

 With perfect light—in the gloaming—we walked the grounds.

 I always find myself pulled two ways in a sculpture garden—I think the sculpture usually wins, dominates the landscape and makes the garden merely background. But at LongHouse Reserve, there is some beautiful garden design.

A grouping of nests.

I was particularly drawn to some site-specific sculptures made by Maren Hassinger. These are “nest-like” forms woven of branches from the garden, always placed in the background, but more powerful for that. They were very different from any other sculpture in the garden, highly naturalistic; they felt almost part of the planting, though exaggerated in size. They reminded me of the immense nests of bald eagles I’ve seen high in trees at the edge of the Delaware River.

They create a strong feeling of mystery, particularly in the fading light of early evening.