the bottle tree

each time we're down here at myrtle beach, we always go to brookgreen gardens. it's composed of four former plantations that have been converted into gardens featuring american sculpture. i found the following sculpture strangely mesmerizing:


called the bottle tree, its story goes as follows:

this interpretation of the bottle tree honors an age-old tradition of the African American community of the Lowcountry. multicolored glass bottles hung on a tree attracted evil spirits that might have been lurking by the house. the bottles are slanted upward so that the spirits, mesmerized by the sunlit colors, are trapped once they have entered. as the wind blows across the mouth of the bottle, the spirits are heard to moan. the bottle tree has its roots in Africa and is a rare example of cultural transfer and survival.

i collect glass bottles. perhaps i could create something out of them~right now, they're just lined up along my windowsill.