Bending Sticks

The film Bending Sticks celebrates the twenty-five year career of internationally renowned environmental artist Patrick Dougherty, who has created hundreds of monumental, site-specific sculptures out of nothing more than saplings. The film follows the artist and his collaborators during a year of stick work in the Carolinas and reveals Dougherty’s process, personal story and inspirations.  The film airs Thursday, February 25 at 9:00 p.m. on South Carolina ETV.

The heart of the film is the creation of five Dougherty commissions in different locations – inside the new wing of the NC Museum of Art, on Main Street in Rock Hill, SC, at a private home in Chapel Hill, NC, at the Bascom Art Center in the mountains of NC, and in the gardens of Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. At each location, viewers see how Dougherty and many others transform piles of sticks into energetic lines and exuberant forms. Dougherty’s projects invite collaboration and engage communities in the making and viewing of his very public art.

Bending Sticks explores how the artist’s childhood – spent rambling through the woods and building forts and hideouts with his four siblings – fueled his career and nurtured the prolific, insightful artist he is today after a quarter century of stick building in such places as Tacoma, Honolulu, Dublin, Brooklyn, Chateaubourg and Tokyo.