(STILL) LOST, 2022, stucco, concrete, rebar, chicken wire, glass, 72x53x20″ [fig. 1], 68x46x19″ [fig. 2]. In 2022, (STILL) LOST was permanently installed into the Lehigh Art Enclave: an unmaintained sculpture garden, hidden on a plot of land in the woods. The local community has nicknamed the inconspicuous site the "Acid Gardens".
(STILL) LOST, 2024. Documentation two years after installation. Similarly to the rest of the garden's sculptures, the sublime forces of nature and vandalism have begun to absorb (STILL) LOST. After the first of the two figures fell to the ground, anonymous members of the community lifted the 300lbs sculpture back to its knees. The historical and unforgiving site has finally welcomed them.
Photograph by Bella Marino.
(STILL) LOST (process), 2022. Catlett hauled hundreds of pounds of stucco and concrete by wheelbarrow uphill through the woods a quarter mile to the site, and cured all of it by using water carried up from a nearby creek. The figures' eyes were made in collaboration with Dennis Gardner in a local glass studio.
Photographs courtesy of those who have developed a shared relationship with (STILL) LOST and the Lehigh Art Enclave.
Lehigh Art Enclave, 1999. Image provided by Norman Girardot. The enclave was founded in 1999 by Norman Girardot, a now retired Lehigh University professor of religion studies. (Above) Norm sits with his students around the first completed sculpture of the Enclave: The Millennium Folk Arch. The arch was made by the class along with local outsider artist Mr. Imagination, also known as "Mr. I", and a cohort of local middle schoolers. During the '90s and '00s, Norm's class and other local artists contributed over a dozen sculptures to the enclave. The site has never been maintained, and many of the sculptures have been either lost, destroyed, or vandalized over time.
Norm Girardot exiting the enclave more than 20 years later, after attending the unveiling of Catlett's addition (STILL) LOST in 2022.
Norm Girardot and Jack Catlett with (STILL) LOST in 2022 (left). (STILL) LOST seen through The Millennium Folk Arch, 2022 (right).