DATE:11-4-05

CONTACT: Ernie Denny 864-650-8841 edenny@clemson.edu

WRITER:Debbie Dalhouse 864-656-6737 ddalhou@clemson.edu

S.C. Botanical Garden sculpture documentary airs on ETV

CLEMSON – The South Carolina Botanical Garden’s latest nature-based sculpture documentary airs Thursday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m. on S.C. Educational Television (ETV). “Touch the Earth…Herb Parker’s Crucible” documents construction of the earth and stone sculpture in the 300-acre garden at Clemson University.

“Crucible invites you to enter a quiet, contemplative space of earth, stone, darkness and light,” said Ernie Denny, cultural awareness programs facilitator in the garden. “It brings together elemental forces of nature that move, mix and recombine to create something totally new and unexpected.”

Artist Herb Parker said, “This is a living sculpture; it will evolve over time. It is created to enhance viewers’ perception of the environment and their relationship with nature.” An art professor at College of Charleston, Parker has exhibited his work throughout the United States, as well as in Italy and Japan.

One of 13 nature-based sculptures in the garden, this dome-shaped work is located beside the Woodland Wildflower Trail. Many of the sculptures incorporate living plant material as part of the design. Clemson’s program is one of the few in the world in which the works are intended to become a living part of the landscape.

Parker and Denny will be interviewed live on ETV when the documentary airs during the fall pledge drive. Personnel from Clemson’s Sandhill Research and Education Center in Columbia will be manning the telephone lines, with help from the Midlands Master Gardeners.

The S.C. Botanical Garden and the Sandhill Research and Education Center are public services of Clemson University. To order a DVD of the documentary, go to www.clemson.edu/scbg/

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