Porter Square Megaliths, (sculpture).

Porter Square Megaliths, (sculpture).

Phillips, David, 1944- , sculptor.

Burns, I, assistant.

Cox, M., assistant.

Johnson, T., assistant.

Cambridge Seven Associates, architectural firm.

Carol R. Johnson & Associates, landscape architect.

Porter Square Megaliths, (sculpture).

1980-1984. Cast 1983. Dedicated May 3, 1985.

Digital Reference:

Granite boulders and cast bronze.

Overall: approx. 5 ft. 8 in. x 20 ft. x 20 ft.

(On raised portion of "Birth of a Bollard" sculpture:) DAVID PHILLIPS/1983 (On side of "Birth of a Bollard" sculpture:) ASSISTANTS/I. BURNS/M. COX/T. JOHNSON (On west boulder, near bottom of bronze:) DAVID PHILLIPS/1983 (On south boulder, near bottom of bronze:) DAVID PHILLIPS/1983 (On east boulder, near bottom of bronze:) DAVID PHILLIPS/1983 signed

A site-specific installation consisting of four granite boulders that have slices taken out and replaced with cast bronze replicas of the stone sections. The sliced boulders are surrounded by a two level plaza adjacent to the Porter Square subway station. The floor of the plaza is marked in a grid pattern with wide strips of granite. The steps leading to the lower level of the plaza are marked with stone bollards (square posts). The artist wanted to make the plaza look as though it had been shaped around the boulders, so he made the cuts in his boulders line up with the precise edges of both the granite strips on the plaza floor and the granite bollards at the plaza steps. One of the granite boulders even features a bronze bollard emerging from the top --the artist calls this one "Birth of a Bollard."

Outdoor Sculpture -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge

Administered by Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Located Porter Square Station, Plaza on Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts

This installation was commissioned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority through the Cambridge Arts Council's Arts On The Line program. The bronze pieces were cast in the artist's studio and assistance was provided by I. Burns, M. Cox, and T. Johnson. IAS files contain a fact sheet from the Cambridge Arts Council's Arts On The Line program; an article from the Boston Globe, March 4, 1979, pg. A10-12; an article from Arts New England 15 (June/July 1994): pg. 39-40; an excerpt from "Public Art in Cambridge," Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Arts Council, 1984, pg. 23; and an excerpt from "Red Line Northwest Extension" booklet on subway art published by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Cambridge Arts Council, c. 1985.

Cambridge Arts Council, Percent for Art Program, 1990.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Massachusetts survey, 1994.

"Public Art in Cambridge," Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Arts Council, 1984, pg. 23.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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