About the Exhibition
Garden of Stones, an eloquent garden plan of trees growing from stone, is Andy Goldsworthy’s design for the Memorial Garden of The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. The Memorial Garden is a contemplative space dedicated to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and honoring those who survived. For Garden of Stones, Goldsworthy (b.1956, Cheshire, England) worked with nature’s most elemental materials to create a garden that is the artist’s metaphor for the tenacity and fragility of life. Eighteen boulders form a series of narrow pathways in the Memorial Garden’s 4,150-square-foot space. A single dwarf oak sapling emerges from the top of each boulder, growing straight from the stone. As the trees mature in the coming years, each will grow to become a part of the stone, its trunk widening and fusing to the base.
Garden of Stones reflects the tension between the ephemeral and the timeless, between young and old, and between the unyielding and the pliable. More importantly, it demonstrates how elements of nature can survive in seemingly impossible places. In Jewish tradition, stones are often placed on graves as a sign of remembrance. Here, Goldsworthy brings stone and trees together as a representation of life cycles intertwined. As a living memorial, the garden is a tribute to the hardship, struggle, tenacity, and survival experienced by those who endured the Holocaust. The effect of time on humans and nature, a key factor in Goldsworthy’s work, is richly present in Garden of Stones, as the sculpture will be viewed, as well as cared for, by future generations.
Public Art Fund and The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust collaborated on the artist selection process, and the creation and installation of Garden of Stones.