A low concrete wall split down the middle. It’s not quite a bench, and not quite a barrier—which is exactly the point.
For seven years now, sculptor Jill Downen’s Architectural Folly from a Future Place has lived in Swope Park, just steps from General Swope’s Greek-Doric mausoleum. Originally commissioned for Kansas City’s citywide arts initiative Open Spaces in 2018, Architectural Folly doesn’t shout for attention but quietly invites passersby to reconsider a simple question: What are walls for?
“The idea came from a desire to see a wall as a bench,” Downen says. “Walls divide space and mark territory, but they can also serve as benches.” It’s a simple observation about how we can use the structures around us, in both the physical and metaphorical sense. The title, Architectural Folly from a Future Place, also hints at something bigger: “It’s one project in a long series that links past ideas with present ones and points toward future artworks from my imagination.”
To make this piece happen, Downen worked with Pete Browne of Kissick Construction on a topography survey, and craftsman Philip Wassmer molded the concrete to match the land’s contours exactly. The result is a structure that hugs the gentle hillside slope so well it’s like it’s grown there. “The sculpture fits into its location seamlessly, like a glove,” Downen says. You can even watch a timelapse of the installation on her website, jilldownen.com.
The most striking feature of Architectural Folly is, undoubtedly, the deliberate crack running through its center. For Downen, the fissure represents something deeply human. She’s drawn to how “fragility and brokenness within the human experience hold potential to offer beauty, if one can overcome and transcend their most challenging experiences.” The gap between the two halves becomes a passageway and invitation to step through rather than around.
Even the materials tell a story. Downen paired concrete with semi-precious lapis lazuli, a deep-blue stone flecked with gold. The blue line references the blueprints, plumb lines, construction methods, and XYZ axis of the project.
Seven years in, the sculpture is showing its age in ways that add to its character: The ground has shifted slightly, causing the two sides of the wall to shift out of perfect alignment. Moss has also started to creep across the surfaces. “If left to natural forces, it could evoke romantic feelings about the passage of time,” Downen says. She says it might eventually need restoration or perhaps even recreation in more durable marble.
In the meantime, while Architectural Folly continues to settle into its Swope Park surroundings, Downen’s working on what she says is her dream project: (dis)Mantle, a carefully crafted free-standing building that plays with light and shadow.
