Platform 17: Stephanie Cardon, Beacon

Stephanie Cardon’s Beacon consists of two concrete pillars connected by planes of thin electric yellow cables. Installed over a pathway on the Sculpture Park grounds, the structure forms a passageway that visitors can walk under and look up through to experience the optical vibrations produced by its fluorescent cable lattice. The conspicuous contrast between the lightweight cords and the solid concrete invites reflection on the sculpture’s construction.

Cardon seeks to disturb the viewer’s usual understanding of space. Beacon evolved from a recent series of smaller concrete and cord works that similarly explored the effects of pattern interference. These works draw from the legacy of Op Art, an artistic movement that emerged in the 1960s and experimented with processes of visual perception through vertiginous patterns and optical illusions. The overlapping planes of yellow cords in Beacon create semi-translucent moiré effects that questions a clear distinction between the sculpture and the surrounding natural environment. Beacon is the seventeenth installment of deCordova’s PLATFORM series, which invites site-specific installations by emerging and mid-career artists from New England and across the United States that engage with deCordova’s unique landscape.

Cardon earned her MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, and a graduate certificate from The International Center of Photography, NY. She has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Boston Sculptors Gallery; Kingston Gallery, Boston; Galerie Michèle Chomette, Paris; and Fondazione Forma per la Fotographia, Rome. Cardon is also Executive Editor at Big Red & Shiny, a non-profit organization and online publication about contemporary art.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website