Excerpts from Christine Temin's July 20, 2003 review of The Four Elements in the Boston Globe
"Cemetery branches out with subtle, site-specific artwork."
Copyright © 2003 Globe Newspaper Company

"...Opened in 1848, Forest Hills was in the vanguard of America's rural cemetery movement, which was based on Europe's. In 19th-century Britain, sprawling cemeteries started to resemble the parks surrounding great English country houses, landscapes shrewdly designed to look perfectly natural, when in reality they were anything but. In France, Napoleon relocated deceased celebrities such as Moliere to the new, parklike Pere Lachaise cemetery in order to make it the place to spend eternity. (This and other entertaining material is in Susan Wilson's book Garden of Memories: A Guide to Historic Forest Hills.)..."

"...Most of the works in The Four Elements are exceedingly subtle; some would be hard to find were it not for the free maps provided. One nearly invisible piece is Larissa Brown's Swept, a series of brooms made of branches and twigs collected on the site, attached to trees. Brown is alluding to the Chinese custom of sweeping ancestors' graves as a pledge to continue to care for them even after death.

Danielle Krcmar also taps into another culture's customs. Her Favorite Things: An Indirect Portrait was inspired by the way ancient Egyptians were buried with necessities for the afterlife. Krcmar's "Favorite Things" include little slippers, scissors, garden tools, chairs, a cellphone, and other ordinary objects, all made of cement. Instead of being buried, they're suspended from the broad, accommodating branches of an old sugar maple. On a guided walk through the show, Krcmar said she'd also included the kind of manila envelope artists use to send out slides to pique the interest of curators, as a nod to the drudgery of the artist's routine.

Amy Stacey Curtis's Inversion I is a series of round mirrors placed on the ground, like miniature pools. They absorb their surroundings and give them back. Gazing down into them brings to mind the story of Narcissus, the Greek youth besotted with his image reflected in the water.

Winslow Burleson and Chris Verplaetse use real water--Lake Hibiscus--in Circles of Life. The mechanics of the piece are hidden under the surface, and they make that surface ripple every few minutes, breaking its tranquility. You're invited to toss a pebble into the water, adding to the effect.

Some 200 artists from all over the country applied to be included in The Four Elements. A jury of experts chosen by Cecily Miller, director of the Forest Hills Educational Trust, whittled that number down to 17. They've selected wisely. Public art, whether temporary or permanent, is a minefield. Witness the maudlin figurative disasters still foisted on the public--especially, for political reasons, in Boston--and the brutally oversize all-purpose steel abstractions in screaming colors that seem to be the favored alternative..."

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