Little Women
17’ x 9’ x 24’
Polypropylene cord, steel, wood
2016
2016 Open Studio Fellow
Artist Statement
I have always wanted to make a semi-permanent outdoor sculpture with a very large hanging fiber element or fringe. So I designed a model based on this simple idea for the Franconia Sculpture Park 20th Anniversary Fellowship. In reference to Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel Little Women, I have chosen each color to represent one of the four March sisters, the “little women” of the book’s title. Meg the oldest is a redhead (orange cord), Jo the next is a tomboy represented by blue, Beth is an ombre mix of browns because she is a shy homebody, and Amy the youngest has vibrant yellow blond hair. These women, however, are so big that the viewer can enjoy walking through their hair-curtain-tentacle-fringe while the wind makes the fiber seem like waves, leaves or tall grass blowing. I invite park visitors to move through, touch and enjoy the sculpture (please style or detangle) but not to hang or climb on it.
Ellie Murphy
Born: Urbana, IL, USA, 1964
Resides: Queens, NY, USA
Education
MFA, Yale University School of Art, 1992
BFA, Washington University, 1987