Brooklawn Park in New Bedford has a soccer field, a playground, and asphalt paths winding around a small, grassy hill. It also contains the buried foundations of several buildings, remnants of an estate that no longer exists there. With the help of some friends, a professional archaeologist, and the city government, a local artist named Carl Simmons uncovered these remains. And he’s shared the findings in some unexpected ways.
The uncovering of this building led Carl to undertake other projects in Brooklawn Park. Some are archaeologically-based. Others are not. Taken together, Carl Simmons considers them to be ‘found land art’, public sculptures that reveal the history of Brooklawn Park. Through these subtle and surprising projects, Carl’s work illustrates all the different ways the past can leave its mark on the present.