Recasting Nature
I think of certain natural forms—leaf, acorn, acorn cap, seedpod, branch—as basic building blocks, like cells. Through repetition and improvisation I build new structures that explore the relationships and tensions between natural and manmade forms. Although I often incorporate industrial materials, I strive to create a feeling of naturalness in my sculptures and installations, as though the parts have organically ordered themselves.
Ice Forest (Chesterwood)
2022, Chesterwood, Stockbridge, MA
Ice Forest is a site-specific installation in Chesterwood’s Woodland Gallery. Hundreds of translucent cast resin rose stems are suspended, thorns sharp like real roses, suggesting an enticing yet dangerous fairy tale world. The installation evolved during the artist’s residency at Chesterwood in a space that was once a woodshed. Throughout the day sunlight changes the stems from see-through to translucent, making Ice Forest a conversation between outdoors and indoors.
Materials: Urethane resin, monofilament
Dimensions: 10' H x 10' W x 14' L
Unraveling Oculus
2022, installation, Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, Vermont
2021, video, B3 Festival of the Moving Image, Frankfurt, Germany
Beth Galston, sculptural installation and performance; with video by Ellen Sebring
The Bell Silo at the Goldring-Piene Art Farm was the site for my sculptural installation and performance. Natural materials collected on daily walks in the woods during the COVID pandemic are the basis for a series of actions responding to the sounds and light in this space. The deep resonance of the silo's bell, designed by Paul Matisse, is set against the staccato jostling of acorn caps, later strung into fairytale-like strands. The video weaves my interactions with sculptural materials to slowly reveal and transform the silo’s “oculus.”
Materials: Acorn caps, mirrored plexiglas, catalpa leaves
Recasting Nature: Selected Sculptures
2016, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA
This retrospective exhibition includes key works from the "Recasting Nature" series, tracing my development over the last twenty years. Inspired by natural forms and processes, the series evolves from sculptures made of natural materials, to translucent cast resin pieces, prints and a new immersive computer-controlled light installation. Read More
Materials: Leaves, seedpods, urethane resin, LEDs, electronics
Dimensions: Variable
Galston's art combines organic and man-made materials to transform them into a hybrid of natural forms. The result is best compared to a futuristic walk in the woods. — The Sentinel
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The Sentinel | Museum Brochure | Reeves catalog
Ice Forest (Reeves)
2005, Reeves Contemporary, New York, NY
Hundreds of translucent cast resin rose stems were suspended to create an icy forest through which viewers move. The crystalline stems, whose thorns are sharp like real roses, suggest a fairy tale world that is enticing yet dangerous. Shadows of stems and viewers cast onto a nearby wall extend the piece , making it feel endless and immersive. Read More
Materials: Urethane resin, monofilament
Dimensions: 10' H x 10' W x 14' L
Ice Forest (Artist’s studio)
2001-2003, Artist's studio, Somerville, MA
These images show the development of the Ice Forest installation in my studio in Somerville. I collected cuttings from a rose bush, grafted them together to make elements ranging from 4’ - 5’6” long, then cast them in industrial resin. Through a process of improvisation, I repeated, heated, twisted, and suspended these modules from my 12’ high ceiling.
Materials: Urethane resin, monofilament
Dimensions: variable
Although it was late spring when I made my first visit to Beth Galston's studio, icicles hung down from the rafters. Not just one or two. Instead, a whole forest of glittering strands ... — The Middlesex Beat
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Middlesex Beat | Presence of Light | Berkshire Eagle | Berkshire Eagle 2
Terrain
2003, Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME
I am fascinated by the idea of transformation, brought about through a process of repeating and reordering elements collected from nature. “Sycamore Circle”—a ring of eighty translucent bricks with sycamore leaves partially embedded—plays with the contrast of permanence (the inner resin core) and fragility (the delicate leaves on the outside). From a distance, “Tangle” appears to be a coiled rope. On closer viewing one can see tens of thousands of acorn caps, sorted, drilled, strung together and suspended on monofilament.
For Sycamore Circle
Materials: Urethane resin and sycamore leaves
Dimensions: 54" diameter x 20" high
For Tangle
Materials: Acorn caps and monofilament
Dimensions: Variable
Beth Galston's "Tangle" and "Sycamore Wall," 2000 play on both the strength and fragility of nature. — Casco Bay Weekly
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Casco Bay Weekly | artscope
Recasting Nature
2000, Boston Sculptors at Chapel Gallery, West Newton, MA
This installation, made of natural materials and translucent resin, explores relationships between nature and architecture. Some of the sculptures suggest thickets, tangled vines, or tree trunks. Others are architectural forms such as a corridor of icicle-like rose stems or a wall of resin "bricks", smooth on one side with ragged layers of exposed leaves on the other side. Read More
Materials: Leaves, seed pods, rose petals, urethane resin
Dimensions: variable
At first, they look like ordinary ropes, rising out of a pile on the floor like snakes charmed out of a basket. Turns out, though, that the "rope" is made of acorn caps, thousands of them fastidiously strung on monofilament. — Boston Globe
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Boston Globe | Art New England | Newton Tab | Boston Phoenix
Still/Life
1998, Boston Sculptors at Chapel Gallery, West Newton, MA
Leaves, acorns, branches, logs, and seed pods are preserved by making castings of their shapes or encasing them in resin, like insects in amber. Extracted from the natural cycles of growth and decay, these organic objects become frozen moments in time. Read More
Materials: Leaves, seed pods, urethane resin, silicone rubber
Dimensions: variable
Beth Galston has exhibited vast collections of leaves, acorns and dried pods in elegant, and dramatically obsessive installations containing hundreds if not thousands of these forms dried and stacked in rows, circles and loose piles. — artsMEDIA
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Boston Globe | artsMedia | Boston Globe - West Weekly | Boston Globe - West
Works in Resin
2000-2002, Boston Sculptors Gallery, Boston, MA
Natural materials are set within tiny resin cubes, creating modular units that can be stacked and rearranged in varying configurations. Sometimes materials are embedded inside natural shapes, such as resin-cast slices of tree trunks. These sculptures create a synthesis of natural and built forms.
Materials: Urethane resin, natural materials
Dimensions: variable
Of the wall's worth of tiny pieces, each on a little shelf, the most touching are those with resin hands ... -- Boston Globe
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Boston Globe
Leaf Dreams
1997, Boston Sculptors at Chapel Gallery, West Newton, MA
Inspired by the falling leaves of the cucumber magnolia tree, this indoor environment contrasts with the skeletal tree outside, which viewers pass as they enter the exhibit. Using leaves that I’ve collected, dried, and dipped in beeswax, the sculpture captures transitory phenomena re-formed in playful ways. Read More
NOTE: The final two images shown here are from the exhibition, “Verdant Eyes,” Brattleboro Art Museum, Brattleboro, VT, May 17 - Nov 2, 1997
Materials: Leaves, seed pods, beeswax, netting, vellum
Dimensions: 22' x 29' x 53'6"
Beth Galston's work has always possessed a romantic quality--accessible, even sensual, yet paradoxically structured and coolly intellectual. — Sculpture Magazine
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Sculpture Magazine | Boston Globe | Boston Herald | Verdant Eyes ANE | Verdant Eyes brochure
