‘Hedgerow’ at Mingei — a linear boundary of a different sort

Well into their 7 year transformation project with Mingei International Museum and 6 commissions deep into an architect |artist | museum series of collaborations, Mingei was presented with a challenge that begged  a unique solution. The entire transformation project theme was to OPEN the museum to all, to community and to a wider understanding of the Mingei philosophy of carrying forward craft-based arts in everyday life. The Director of the museum made a unique gesture to now commission the architect, LUCE to solve a difficult request from the City official to ‘fence off’ their new and generous garden courtyard to free public access. Antithetical to Mingei’s philosophy, LUCE designed a fence that was not a fence; a wall that was porous as to incite curiosity; a sculptural boundary that begged for exploration, touch and penetration. The result was a series of 40 distinct twisted brass ‘pickets’ standing in marching order, cut from solid brass by CNC machine whilst being twisted and patinaed by hand. A Zahner  oldest ornamental metal shop in the US) worked closely with artist Jennifer Luce to sculpt the overall cadence of the fence and allow it to be free-standing, ethereal and seemingly light as a feather. Today, the courtyard is accessible on foot from the museum but visually alluring night and day from the entire Plaza de Panama at historic Balboa Park. Amidst the historic context of the 1915 Balboa Park setting, ‘Hedgerow’ (inspired by the hedgerows of California citrus farms) acts as a beacon more than a boundary to invite visitors to seek out Mingei at its finest; a thing made by machine and hand alike, eliciting a sense of human presence.