Seaside Chestnuts
May Babcock (b. 1986, lives and works in Pawtucket, RI), Seaside Chestnuts, 2026, Chinese-American chestnut trees, flax, recycled fencing, milkweed, black walnut, goldenrod, and beeswax. Commissioned for The Land Tells Our Stories, an Art & the Landscape exhibition by The Trustees, MA. Photo by Chris Cardoza, Doza Visuals
Once abundant across eastern North America, wild American chestnut trees are now extremely rare, their populations devastated by a century-old blight. Moose Hill Farm and the adjacent wooden landscape are home to several of these elder beings. For Seaside Chestnuts, Babcock plants eleven chestnut trees—American, Chinese, and hybrid varieties provided by The American Chestnut Foundation. Each tree is encircled by seaweed-like forms made from farm fencing and locally gathered papermaking plants from this very landscape. These forms protect the young saplings as they grow and reference that this Trustees site lies along a projected future coastline if polar ice caps fully melt. These sculptural “protectors” reference coastal ecologies and, for Babcock, echo the resilience and regenerative potential embodied by hybrid species.
Directions & Hours
The address is 396 Moose Hill St, Sharon, MA. Park in the parking lot right next to the meadow where the sculptures are, which is next to the Cooperative Nature School.
Open year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset, and FREE to all.
Documentary: Chris Cardoza / Doza Visuals
Commissioned for The Land Tells Our Stories, an Art & The Landscape exhibition by The Trustees, MA. Photos by Chris Cardoza, Doza Visuals.
Supporters: The Trustees and staff of deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, supporters of these installations, the chestnut trees and support are provided by The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) and TACF Massachusetts / Rhode Island Chapter, flax from Hawk & Handsaw Farm, flax day help from Southeastern New England Fibershed and RISD Landscape Architecture students, watering and soil testing help from the Cooperative Nature School and staff.