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Augusta Court House Sculpture Proposal

Conceptual Approach to the art location #5

This proposal addresses and interprets the specific site context and function, a county courthouse, and the regional context of a city and county settled near the Kennebec River. All of the elements selected for this art project, stone books, the dry stone stream, and plants have conceptual connotations and associations. Conceptually, a book represents learning and accumulated knowledge. Stone represents the geologic influence on Maine, societal prestige as a building material, and of course time. While the dry stone stream is of course, the Kennebec River and its effect on settlement patterns for the whole county and the plant material represents the flora of Maine.

These concepts are woven together here at the courthouse entrance to interpret the human interaction that takes place within the building. The judicial process seeks to settle human conflicts through the interpretation of time honored and accepted rules of law. The elements of this civil process are a judge, or judges, and the conflicting parties of defendant and plaintiff. Those three elements are represented in this design by stone books. Each stone book will consist of a different type or color of Maine granite. The plaintiff and defendant stone books will be roughhewn, while the stone book representing the judicial element will be more rendered with detailed and polished.

The Kennebec River is represented but the dry stone stream articulated by small stream bed stones and boulders. In this stream bed is placed the two stone books representing the plaintiff and defendant, thus signifying the turbulent waters of conflict. The judicial stone book sits above the fray on a stone plinth overseeing the conceptual landscape. The project is planted with a tough native ground cover, like Geranium macrorrhizum, that will smoother weeds, is a semi-evergreen perennial, and drought tolerant. This plant offers viewers a calming texture and color while creating a simple palette to contrast the proposed stone elements. The project is built on an elevated plinth of earth set apart by the surrounding granite edging. The granite edging breaks to allow the dry stone stream to flow into it. The stone stream flows into the stone drip edge that borders the building edges and serves to frame the project and offer the eye the continuous and cyclical flow of stone, thus conceptual completing the narrative.

The whole landscape is elevated above the entry walk by a surrounding granite plinth and further edged by crushed stone. The stone books will be carved by skilled craftsmen and be composed of 3 different types of Maine granite.

The project is built on an elevated plinth of earth set apart by the surrounding granite edging. The granite edging breaks to allow the dry stone stream to flow into it. The stone stream flows into the stone drip edge that borders the building edges and serves to frame the project and offer the eye the continuous and cyclical flow of stone, thus conceptual completing the narrative.

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