Scarlet runner beans wind up the feet of the iron arch. A ring of curves form a trellis, a dome open to the sky. In the heart of a Shaker garden, Pinaree Sanpitak has made an affirmation of life and force in a woman’s body and a Buddhist sacred space.
Snapdragons bloom at Hancock Shaker Village.
I’m walking through Hancock Shaker Village and soaking in the calm. The sun comes out from behind a cloud, and the tansy is golden and as high as my collarbones, and a monarch butterfly is drinking from a zinnia.
Ben and Scarlet will meet me here in a few minutes, and we’ll walk through the village in search of summer artists. Three international makers have created work here now. Sanpitak looks toward us from Thailand as she is representing her home in the Venice bienale.
Yusuke Asai of Japan paints bright-eyed creatures in earth-toned ink. In the two brick rooms of the poultry house, they spill across the walls and floor like the merganser ducklings I saw on the Hoosic a couple of weeks ago, charging after their mother, so fast and light they ran on the surface of the water.
And I’ll have to come back to see Korean artist Kimsooja and her threads of fiber art. The three of us walk around the circle of the round stone barn and out into the farmyard to watch the chickens bathing in the dust and the kid goats nuzzling at the water trough.
This weekend …
From the porch of the ovvice building, a guest on a rocking chair can look across Hancock Shaker Village.
Chickens walk through the grass near the pastures at Hancock Shaker Village.
Japanese artist Yosuki Asai fills rooms with paintings made from earth from the Shaker forests.
Japanese artist Yosuki Asai fills rooms with paintings made from earth from the Shaker forests.
Pinaree Sanpitak has created sculptures that also act as trellises in the gardens at Hancock Shaker Village.
Pinaree Sanpitak has created sculptures that also act as trellises in the gardens at Hancock Shaker Village.
Scarlet runner beans bloom on a sculpture made by the internationally recognized Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak.
The gardens bloom at Hancock Shaker Village in late summer.
Events coming up …
Find more art and performance, outdoors and food in the BTW events calendar.
