Where:
Mount Auburn Cemetery
580 Mt Auburn Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Admission:
$10-30
Categories:
Art, Good for Groups, Outside, Seasonal
Event website:
https://www.mountauburnsolstice.org/
SOLSTICE returns in December 2024!
Presented by the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery | Created by MASARY
SOLSTICE: Reflections on Winter Light is an annual event at Mount Auburn Cemetery that includes an outdoor journey with large-scale light and sound artworks created by MASARY, and an indoor experience with live music and candle lighting. Guests are invited to walk through the light-filled landscape, explore the Winter Solstice atmosphere, and to reflect on moments of change as the year ends and a new cycle begins. Connect to a landscape of exceptional beauty, consider an intention for the new year, or commemorate the memory of a loved one. Let SOLSTICE light your way as you encounter the unique spirit of Mount Auburn.
EVENT DATES
Dec 7–8
Dec 10– 11 (TUESDAY, December 10, 2024 is Pay-what-you-want night)
Dec 13 –15
Dec 17–18
Dec 20–21
Artwork Descriptions:
Presented in Story Chapel, the Thought Artist Video is one of the first experiences in SOLSTICE. It serves as an invitation to understand how others connect to the Winter Solstice and cycles within their lives and practices. We all encounter the world differently, yet we all endure and embrace the cyclical experience of time and nature. Whether that is confronting life and death or emotional tides, the solstice is a moment and metaphor that brings us closer to ourselves and our lives.
This artwork is inspired by the celestial phenomenon of an eclipse, evoking the iconic image at an intimate scale. Composed of a suspended black disc sculpture, a halo of light, a wall of haze, and the deep visceral tones of the universe, the artwork is an invitation to slow down, meditate, and envelop yourself within the passage from light to dark to light within the quiet space of Hazel Dell.
The prominent facade is painted with animation and echoed with bespoke sounds to present two new site-specific audio-visual pieces. The first, a media poem to the stars, treats the architecture like a pendant of light and bends the scale of the celestial world in an effort to bring visitors closer to themselves. The second is a choreography of darkness and light that turns within the architecture, capturing the harmony of the candle-lighting service taking place inside.
Phase Garden is an aesthetic exploration of our cosmic neighborhood. Deriving pitch, rhythm, color and more from the relationship between the sun, planets, and various moons, the artwork registers an audio-visual environment based on the cosmic math of our solar system. Utilizing both compositional logic and artistic liberty, we have created a sound and light installation for immersing oneself in these rhythms. It is a place for centering and also considering other centers in space and time.
Four imprinted towers sit at the base of Central and Lawn Ave welcoming visitors to enter the landscape through symmetrical illumination. In collaboration with Mount Auburn’s horticulture caretakers, the towers are carved with flora and forms that are specific to the landscape of the Cemetery. The stately pillars hold representations of balance, endurance, renewal, and longevity; all which are present in the enclosed gardens and landscape of Mount Auburn. As each visitor passes through the entrance, their presence is embraced through an interactive expression of light signifying their arrival and the beginning path of SOLSTICE.
Saturday, Dec 07, 2024 11:00a
Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre
Tuesday, Dec 03, 2024 7:00p
United First Parish Church
Saturday, Dec 07, 2024 5:30p
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
Sunday, Dec 08, 2024 goes until 12/22
Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre