Welcome to the SCBG-Cultural Programs - Earthen Bridge Sculpture

Brian Rust

Brian Rust is a nationally recognized Nature-based sculptor. The nature of his work is to create sculptural environments: physical spaces that echo human architecture but replace specific function with the more generalized actions of observation and contemplation which serve as visual object and environment. They are like theater sets put into motion by those who pass through them.

Brian has designed and created sculpture for a variety of settings from rural landscape to downtown streets. The majority of these works have been designed for specific sites which were built in place. This allows the sculptor to meet the people who live and work in the area. It also creates opportunity to get to know the area and the culture that supposrt it. Brian claims that by conversing with the casual passerby about life, and what they think and feel he is doing, is most crucial to his creative process.

Brian's work in The South Carolina Botanical Garden involves a rammed earth, stone and wooden structure in a naturalized landscape that alludes to interactions with wind and rain through the passage of time. Though this piece refers directly to the static permanence and security of architecture, it is also reflective of Nature with its ever changing processes of growth and decay. Earthen Bridge stands, at least for a while, as a testament of human presence and absence, spanning between permanent object and the mystery of the ephemeral nature of existence.

1996