Artist announced for Kip Tiernan memorial: Nationally-known sculptor and installation artist Deedee Morrison’s Wisdom Lines selected

Rosie’s Place, in partnership with the Boston Art Commission, announces the selection of a conceptual design for a permanent commemorative installation to honor social justice activist and Rosie’s Place founder Kip Tiernan. Wisdom Lines, by Birmingham, Alabama-based, nationally-recognized sculptor and installation artist Deedee Morrison, will be a contemporary LED lighting sculpture using text and light upon a curving form to memorialize Tiernan’s work. The design will be installed in mid-2014 on the sidewalk plaza on Dartmouth Street, between Newbury Street and the near side of public alley 440; the site is near Old South Church, which housed Tiernan’s office for 30 years.

“Kip advocated, protested, fasted, marched and lobbied for affordable and accessible housing, health care and education as well as jobs, civil rights and peace,” said Rosie’s Place Executive Director Sue Marsh. “Drawing upon her early roots, she personified the philosophy that together we can change the world if we are only willing to care enough and, ‘to take the risk of being human.’  With this beautiful memorial, we will honor her memory, and be reminded ourselves of our own obligation to seek justice.”

The panel that selected the final design included representatives from Rosie's Place, Boston Art Commission, the Boston Public Library, the City of Boston Public Works Department, Community Works, the Fitchburg Art Museum, and Old South Church.

“We have great confidence that Ms. Morrison will help to expand our public art collection by creating a sculpture harmonious with its setting that pushes us to look beyond figurative bronze in the creation of a memorial,” said Boston Art Commission Director Karin Goodfellow. “The Boston Art Commission is looking forward to working with Rosie’s Place and Deedee Morrison to bring an artwork embodying Kip Tiernan’s heroic work to the City of Boston.”

Morrison has been working as a professional studio and public artist for more than 12 years, producing a broad spectrum of commissioned work and public art planning and development at sites throughout the United States and in Russia. The sculptor is working on the forefront of creating solar-powered and LED light sculptures to communicate public priorities and vision. Her interest in the natural world and biological forms and light is coupled with a fascination for technical and scientific advances.

She has recently installed solar sculpture projects in Boynton Beach, Florida and Palm Desert, California and will have sculpture installations in New Orleans, Orlando, Chicago and New York City in the coming year.  

“My journey as an artist begins the moment I attempt to translate a project concept into sculptural form,” said Morrison. “For the Kip Tiernan commemorative sculpture, I became captivated by the energy of the words and descriptions that Kip’s friends and family used to talk about her life and work.  I wanted to find a way to incorporate these words into the sculpture because I felt they conveyed the essence of Kip and the message of her life.

“Webster’s dictionary defines light as ‘something that makes vision possible.’ What an apt definition – metaphorically and physically – for Kip’s journey: to engage people and evoke change, with the hope that we all may be able to live healthy and more enriched lives.  My work involves physical light and my challenge was to find a way to combine words with light.  Hopefully this has been achieved with Wisdom Lines in a manner that honors Kip’s legacy and will for years to come.”

In addition to being an outspoken proponent of social justice for poor and homeless women, Tiernan was a founder of the Greater Boston Food Bank, and co-founded the Boston Women’s Fund, Health Care for the Homeless, Poor People’s United Fund and Community Works.  She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and awarded honorary degrees from a dozen colleges and universities.  Her death in 2011 was eulogized both by local leaders and national publications.

Since 1974, Rosie’s Place has provided a safe and nurturing environment where poor and homeless women can maintain their dignity, seek opportunity and find security in their lives.  Rosie’s Place relies solely on the generous support of individuals, foundations and corporations and does not accept any city, state or federal funding.

For more information on public art in Boston, please visit the Boston Art Commission’s website at www.publicartboston.com.