The Bruising: For Jules, The Bird, Jack and Leni by Rashid Johnson

Artist Rashid Johnson combines influences of art, architecture, and nature in the North Forest this summer with a new, outdoor sculpture created specifically for Crystal Bridges. This unique, midnight-blue, 20 x 20 x 20-foot, living greenhouse titled The Bruising: For Jules, The Bird, Jack and Leni will include collaborations with artists, performers, and community members.

Johnson is known for using a range of everyday objects, including live plants, books, records, shea butter, black soap, and CB radios, that reference his childhood, and Black culture. The museum’s Trails and Grounds team worked with Johnson to identify a collection of native and non-native plants to be featured within this pyramidal structure. Tropical plants like monsteras, philodendrons, and ponytail palm trees will lavish in the rich summer sun. The flora will vary with the seasons and response patterns, resulting in an ever-changing, living sculpture. The second level of the sculpture’s frame offers a scaffold stage for artists to perform from within the heart of the sculpture. Performances, such as sound, music, spoken word, poetry, dance, oratory, and more, can also be performed around the sculpture.

James Freeman and Barbara Yates