you can find grounds for sculputre at 80 sculptor's way in hamilton, nj. j. seward johnson, sculptor and philanthropist envisioned a museum and sculpture garden that would make contemporary art accessible to people of all backgrounds. construction began in 1989 and it was opened to the general public in 1992. while some exhibits are permanent, others are rotated out, some traveling the country and finding a temporary home here.
now, i am not going to pretend that i know anything about contemporary art or that i understand it even just a little bit. because i don't. some of it is just weird and i have no clue what i am looking at. but as i have said before, i like weird. and most of it, at least, i find interesting. my favorite sctulptures were of the seward johnson: the retrospective exhibition. i loved the statues of marilyn monroe and the sailor's kiss (me and my girl, zombie girl did an homage as well). it was $15 to enter, and there was so much to see, i am not even sure i saw everything. there are paths that you think lead to no where and are overgrown, but make sure you walk down them, you might miss a naked lady lounging with her man friends by the creek or a statue of a couple making out in the woods, the man we found publicly urinating (he was unzipping his pants, so i assume that's what he was planning on doing...yeah, let's go with that). and i can't unsee the water fountain of the woman squatting and yes, peeing, the bronze naked lady in the bathtub...i don't know...taking a bath? (yes, i nabbed a picture, don't judge me). some of the sculputres welcome you to sit on, climb on and take pictures on...within reason. each is marked whether or not you are allowed to touch it...most of them allow it, which was awesome. one of my favorites was the couple laying together on the ground in a small wooded area, which i would have missed had i not peeked behind the trees. so i thought it would be funny if i layed down next to them and hugged them to take a picture, which was hilarious in itself, until a couple of old ladies strolled into the clearing and asked me if we were having a threesome and we all laughed so hard that i was glad they caught me doing naughty things with the sculptures! and another sctulpture of a naked woman (there were lots of naked ladies!) in the woods with two men and i hopped in the middle for a photo op, and again got busted by a couple of ladies who were starteled to find me there. they laughed and said i scared them when i moved because they thought i was part of the sculpture. serisouly, though ladies, i had my clothes on, no one else did!
make sure you walk over to the 'meadows' section of the park. there are some very large sculptures over there that demand your viewing. when were were driving up to the place we could see them all from the road and i was getting very upset that maybe we weren't actually allowed to walk through, but turns out, we just had to find the entrance to it. you know what would have helped with that? looking at the map. i had a map. get one. use it. it will save you time.
i would have trouble telling you what my favorite sculpture of the day was, because there were a few. make sure you set aside at least a few hours to check this place out, because even though it isn't exactly huge, there is much to see. hidden gems everywhere you turn. i spent most of my day taking inappropriate pictures, sometimes getting caught. sometimes getting laughed at. sometimes being laughed with. it's all good, this place was pure entertainment. stop by my facebook and instagram pages for more fun photos. if you have any info or questions, drop me a line! on to my next adventure...
