Sculptures Big and Small, and All in the Open

‘The Farm Project 2013,’ at Saunders Farm in Garrison

By SUSAN HODARA

Published: September 13, 2013

Over the years, Collaborative Concepts has been able to provide more assistance to “Farm Project” artists, including the use of a crane and, in some cases, financing. This year, a new collaboration with ecoartspace, a bicoastal nonprofit that supports artists who address environmental issues, enabled the Milwaukee-based artist Roy Staab to travel to Garrison and build his installation “Suspended Bow.”

Occupying a small clearing, “Suspended Bow” is a 300-foot leafy chain woven from mugwort, goldenrod and reeds that hangs between two trees to form a catenary curve over a muddy pond. Securing the piece required Mr. Staab, 72, to climb one of the trees. “I had to shimmy up and down like a 12-year-old,” he said.

The work is perpetually in flux. In the rain, it becomes heavy, sometimes touching the pond’s surface. When the sun shines, it carves a striking reflection across the water below. As the weeks pass, it will dry out and become brittle, its hue changing from sage green to brown. “That’s the scary thing,” Mr. Staab said. “We’re using life, and then life turns to death.”