Aeolian Garden

Aeolian Garden (1986) by Douglas Hollis appears as part of the landscape as we approach this work of art. What may strike you initially is its scope, particularly the steel iron trellis spanning 53 feet across and 24 feet high. Following the contours of the grid are stone walls situated low enough to serve as benches to provide a sense of enclosure and originally intended to view the vista. Hollis used a local mason, Mr. Mario Tambornini, a local immigrant from Italy, to build these stone walls. The trees and shrubs selected would have been important to Native Americans in the region and directly link the work to Occum Hall, named for Samson Occum (1723-1792) who was a member of the Mohegan Tribe from New London, CT. (Occum was a well-known minister, educator and missionary in the area. He had studied with Eleazar Wheelock, a Windham native who founded the Indian Charity School in Lebanon, CT in 1754 which later became Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.)

Hollis offers us a formal garden structure, balanced, with clear geometric lines; human organization intersecting with natural space. Here he creates a place that has “…an oasis-like quality where people can pause to catch their spiritual breath in the midst of their everyday lives.”

Aeolian (physical resonance), in the title, reminds us that this is a sound garden. The twenty-five feet Aeolian towers contain a series of wires which when tightened and tuned, resonate with the wind producing sound that inhabits the space.