Actively Change your Views of Artworks at deCordova Sculpture Park

Huff and a Puff, Hugh Hayden; Temporal Shift, Alyson Shotz

Seeing art from all sides is always a rewarding feature of deCordova Sculpture Park. These two recently installed artworks offer revelations from such opportunities. Here are photos from walks around both neighboring artworks with notes, quotes, and links that add perspective.

(left) Hugh Hayden, **Huff and a Puf**f, 2023, wood, mirrored glass, brick, steel; ( right) *Alyson Shotz, **Temporal Shift**, 2021. polished stainless steel. 14’ (h) x 8.8’ x 1.5” (d).*

“Texas born and New York based artist Hugh Hayden’s practice considers the anthropomorphization of the natural world as a visceral lens for exploring the human condition. At deCordova, his original outdoor commission titled Huff and a Puff will be a slanted replica of the one-room home where Henry David Thoreau lived in relative isolation and wrote Walden-Or A Life in the Woods in 1845.” ( quote from Huff and a Puff, deCordova Sculpture Park, The Trustees)

“Hayden plans for the entire cabin—every shingle, windowpane, and brick—to dramatically slant toward the viewer, conveying a surreal, tensioned force upon this iconic home.” ( quote from Huff and a Puff, deCordova Sculpture Park, The Trustees)

“Temporal Shift, a site-responsive sculpture by New York-based artist Alyson Shotz, is a refined meditation on time and space. The sculpture interacts with natural light and its surroundings to probe our perceptions of space and time. ” ( quote from Temporal Shift, deCordova Sculpture Park, The Trustees)

“She engages with materials like mirrors, glass, and steel to animate her work’s surroundings and evoke movement in a seemingly static object. Each viewer’s interaction with Temporal Shift as well as the time of its viewing further determine how the work is uniquely experienced and sensed.”( quote from T emporal Shift, deCordova Sculpture Park, The Trustees)

“Its elliptical form alludes to the Earth’s revolution around the sun over the course of a year. Its mirrored surface of Temporal Shift reflects light and casts shadows to mark different times of day and seasons similar to a sun dial.” ( quote from Temporal Shift, deCordova Sculpture Park, The Trustees)

“The commission advances Hayden’s innovations as a sculptor who forges conversations around the myths and markers of American identity.” ( quote from Huff and a Puff deCordova Sculpture Park, The Trustees)

““I would like my sculpture to be constantly changing, like the weather. When an object has an easily understandable structure or surface, one can know it too quickly… Light, time of day and angle of view all contribute to the change the sculptures can encompass.” — Alyson Shotz” ( quote from Temporal Shift, deCordova Sculpture Park, The Trustees)