Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1405907
TWIG MAN COMETH + ARCHITECTURAL WONDERMENT TWO IMMERSIVE INSTALLATIONS AT FORT WORTH BOTANIC GARDEN/ BOTANICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF TEXAS AND AMON CARTER MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART ENCHANT AND INTRIGUE. BY CATHERINE D. ANSPON A t f i r s t g l a n c e , Patrick Dougherty's twiggy sculpture that resembles a Hobbit home and Anila Quayyam Agha's intricate ode to Islamic architecture couldn't be more dissimilar. Yet both artists share underlying affinities, besides being two talents who define fall in the Fort Worth art world. The word is transformation. Last February, North Carolina-based Dougherty, working in tandem with son Sam Dougherty and a stalwart team of volunteers, braved Texas' deep freeze to conjure one of his signature Stickwork environments for the Fort Worth Botanic Garden/ BRIT, where it remains on view until it returns to the earth approximately a year from now. This month, Pakistan- born Agha, an endowed professor at Augusta College, Georgia, takes over a gallery at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art to forge a chamber filled with light and shadow, turning a white cube into an enchanted, enigmatic space illuminated by patterns both geometric and organic. In a short film produced for Fort Worth Botanic Garden/BRIT, Dougherty says, "I like the idea that there is temporality in art. I think sculpture is transportive, a way for people to get in touch with more of their feelings. It forces people to go to the essentials. It's not really something (Continued) Anila Quayyum Agha's Intersections, 2018, at Amon Carter Museum of American Art Anila Quayyam Agha RANDY PACE COURTESY THE ARTIST AND TALLEY DUNN GALLERY, PHOTO BY DEBRA JENKINS, © ANILA QUAYYAM AGHA. 74