Matthew Geller

“Inside/Out: Sculpture at Evergreen House”

Like many historic houses, the grounds of Evergreen House at Johns Hopkins University are a shadow of the glorious past. The greenhouses are now only crumbing brick foundations, the formal gardens are mostly gone, and only one small fountain dots the landscape. In a small gesture, Babble, Pummel & Pride tries to recapture the aspirations and enchantment these elements represented by combining a gazebo, porch swings and a fountain. The combining of these elements suggests, perhaps, that either things have gotten slightly out of hand or that you can’t quite put things back the way they were.

A stream of water about twenty feet high gushes out of the pipe near the Evergreen House Stoney Run brook bridge. It arcs over the bank, splashes onto the glass roof of the gazebo-like structure. The water runs down the glass roof, cascades over the edge like a waterfall and onto the bank where it flows back into the brook. The work seats six on two gently swaying benches sheltered from the water by the glass.