Exercise #19 – Answers

Q.1. Describe what you are looking at.

A.1. I see a number of slim rods with a round stone at the top. They curve around a pathway in a wooded area. Some reflect the sunlight more than others. I can see about twenty and their shadows are thrown onto the pale coloured path strewn with fallen leaves. Similarly, the barks of some of the surrounding trees reflect the light of the evening sun.

Q.2. What materials do you think the sculptures are made from?

A.2. All of the slender rods would appear to be made from a hard mettle, possibly stainless steel, while the upper white stones are made of marble. Not all the ‘heads’ of stone are exactly the same dimensions but are generally a round shape.

Q.3. What can you make of the way that each on is spaced from the other?

A.3. Each rod is placed about a foot/35 cm apart as they follow the curved route of the path. They seem to be marking it out, defining it specifically for those who walk along it.

Notes

The Chianti Sculpture Park was founded in 2004 by Piero and Rosalba Giadrossi on a site that was originally used for breeding wild boar. It is circa 11 kilometres from Siena in a small village called Pievasciata, in Tuscany.

It is the latest in a long tradition of sculpture gardens in Tuscany. It is distinguished from others by hosting approximately 50% female sculptors and artists from Europe, America, Australia, Africa and Asia. It continues to attract international visitors as well as Italian schools and universities and artists.

The catalogue, written by Dr. Brenda Moore-McCann, has been translated into Italian, French and German. An app is also available. www.thechiantisculpturepark.it.

The title ‘Limes’ gives the clue to the interpretation of the work by this German artist, living in Italy. Limes is the Roman word applied to the boundary between ‘civilised’ Imperial Rome and ‘barbarian’ German tribes. Yet Pfeiffer’s work is clearly not a solid, rigid boundary designed to divide and keep others out; it is open and one can walk through it at any point as it subtly demarcates the man-made path from the wood. The play of light throughout different times of day make the stainless steel rods appear to vanish at times leaving the white marble stones appear like little puffs of smoke or clouds.

The work invites the thought that while boundaries like the Berlin Wall can disappear, unfortunately, others continue to  persist.