Ninth Unconformity (Spring) by Lydia Musco

Insider's Tip: We love Trinity Brewhouse. (Also, shout out to Providence Painted Signs who did the Trinity Rep Mural!).

Location: Empire St. x Fountain St.

Note: Lydia Musco's Ninth Unconformity ended in June. She has installed a new work from the same series at the same site. Photos and info coming soon!

Installed: May 2022

This piece is the ninth in the "Unconformity" series which Lydia Musco began making in 2020, and the third in a smaller group within the series-based color and form impressions of the four seasons in her hometown. The shapes of each piece within the "Unconformity" series are the same and cast from the same mold, but within that form, everything changes from piece to piece. This sculpture, "Spring", contains forms and colors that have to do with the first glimpses of life within the landscape after winter.

Musco learned to observe the world from her poet mother and from her grandfathers who performed magic tricks and asked expert questions. Lydia learned to work with her hands from her woodworker father and grandmothers who cooked Sicilian delicacies and played piano duets. From them, Musco also learned the power of working deeply into whatever boundaries are encountered and the immense, unexpected creative territory that is revealed when choices are limited. She credits her most valuable tools as the rules and constraints encountered while creating.

This current body of work began with the development of rules that governed scale, form, color, content, and logistics. For example, the logistics rule - the artist must be able to handle and move an entire piece herself if necessary - which led to a building process that itself led to deeper explorations within the restrictions guiding color and content. Stacking many individual pieces into a larger form was a logistical solution and simultaneously brought in a way to represent the layers of stories and memories that make up Musco's experience of moving through life. When Lydia interacts with the repetitive stacking of these current pieces, she is reconstructing not only the way in which they were built but also the moments that are encoded in the actions that created each layer. The sedimentary layers found in geology and the way that large and small moments can be recorded but can also be changed over time. The object represents both the past - when it was built - and the present moment of being rebuilt.

In the Artists Words:

"With the action of building up the form again I’m reminded to consider how things have changed, both from my own perspective and in the bigger picture. Making helps me understand the world. Making helps me learn how things go together, how things come apart, how they stand, how they fall, how they interact, and helps me to see the world. There is so much to learn; I treasure every scrap of understanding I can get."

Lydia Jenkins Musco is an artist from New England whose work has been exhibited in galleries and outdoor spaces across the United States.

Material: Integrally pigmented concrete

Artist IG: @lydia_j_musco

~Take a Closer Look~

Ninth Unconformity (Spring) is assembled by the artist layer by layer on-site. What do you think makes that process challenging or easy?

The artist selected the forms and colors as glimpses of life within the landscape after winter. What forms or colors do you notice? Are there particular elements that make you think about spring?

Watch the video and think about how would you describe the artist’s form of expression.