Inside "Double or Nothing" #4

T. Renner, "Inside 'Double or Nothing' #4," 2011, digital photograph.

This is a photo taken from the interior of an installation by Patrick Dougherty currently on view on the campus of Washington University in Saint Louis.

From an article on "Double or Nothing" by Liam Otten on the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts web site:

There is an undeniable romanticism to the sculpture of Patrick Dougherty. Working with the simplest of materials -- sticks, branches, and saplings -- the North Carolina-based artist creates playful architectural forms that variously suggest nests, primitive shelters, and fairy-tale castles.

This fall, Dougherty enlisted dozens of students to help construct Double or Nothing, a new commission for Washington University in St. Louis' Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Located along Forsyth Boulevard, on the south lawn of Givens Hall, the piece consists of two large woven-wood structures, each rising approximately 20 feet in the air.

"I think of myself as a sculptor, and I think of sticks as worthy sculptural material," says Dougherty, the Sam Fox School's 2011 Louis D. Beaumont Artist in Residence.

"People have a visceral response and connection to sticks," says Dougherty, who to date has created approximately 200 "stickworks," as he calls them. "People tell stories about their favorite trees. I just had to figure out what birds and beavers already knew about fitting sticks together."

Double or Nothing grew out of a master class, titled "Stickwork on Campus," co-taught by Dougherty and Ron Fondaw, professor of art. (Funding for the project was provided by the Sam Fox School Dean's Office and by the Colleges of Art and Architecture.)

Sixteen graduate and advanced undergraduate students—drawn from art, architecture, and the new Master of Landscape Architecture program—met with Dougherty for an initial site visit last August, then attended a series of lectures on public art and architecture