''Fairies Candles'' is a

public art Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...

work by artist

Marina Lee Marina Lee, also known as Marina Lie (1902 – December 1976) was a ballerina and Nazi spy during World War II. Background Lee was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia then fled in 1917 when her parents were killed by the Bolsheviks. Lee settled i ...

. It was installed in Kilbourn-Kadish Park on a bluff overlooking the

Milwaukee River The Milwaukee River is a river in the state of Wisconsin. It is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 19, 2011 Once a locus of industry, the river is now the c ...

near downtown

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

in 2005.

Description

''Fairies Candles'' consists of three

tentacle In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work ma ...

-like forms that rise from the hillside. Each form tapers vertically from a wide base, snaking skyward. The elements are set on small circular concrete bases. Near the top of each tentacle, small lighting elements are affixed with bulbs directed downward. According to the artist, the woodland black cohosh plant, sometimes known as a fairy candle, inspired the form of the sculpture.

Location

The site was created as part of the City of Milwaukee's renovations of Kilbourn Park and COA's creation of Alice Bertschy Kadish Park on the bluff below. The hillside features a

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

, soccer field,

bicycle path Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by motorists are also cycling infrastructure, except whe ...

and scenic overlook.

Funding

The sculpture was funded as a community art project during the construction of the amphitheatre with a grant from the Mary Nohl Fund of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

References

2005 sculptures Bronze sculptures in Wisconsin {{Public-art-stub