by Diane Baltozer

Somerville artist Beth Galston usually works with space, light and shadow--reflecting, translucent and pierced surfaces that are "both there and not there"--in her walk-though installation art pieces.

But from childhood, when she visited some of the monumental ancient civilizations and earthworks of Egypt, South and Central America and camped frequently in the vast expanses of the Western national parks, she has also had profound "private and powerful experiences alone outdoors" which have contributed to her artistic exploration of the concept of space, she says.

"I had strong dreams and memories of land and the strong surf and ocean or even in the backyard," she said as her latest installation opened Thursday at Milton Academy's Nesto Gallery.

Galston, who has degrees in visual and fine arts from MIT, Kansas City Art Institute and Cornell University, has also always "had an affinity for Japanese and English picturesque gardens." Recently, because of this interest and her interest in the uses of space, she has been studying landscape architecture at Radcliffe's Bunting Institute.

The artist has brought all of this together in a new installation piece called "Garden" that's a bit of a departure from the norm for her. It's her first piece with a concrete, visually representational "theme", the first in which she has used color, and her first collaboration with other professional artists. But it continues her exploration of "inner and outer space, the psychological and physical."

In "Garden", Galston turns from juxtaposing light and shadow to playing with and playing off the opposites of the natural environment of a garden with what can destroy the environment--artificial materials like plastics. And yet she offers hope in that both can become a never-ending positive process, the plastics through recycling from product to plastic chips and back again.

Her whimsical "Garden" is constructed mostly of the artificial--plastic detergent, chemical and milk bottles recycled into half a ton of plastic chips, plastic film spools and film canister caps, plastic foam food packaging trays, and soda cans and tacky room and car deodorizers--"planted" with the natural--live sprouting plants in plastic baggie terrariums.

The materials are laid out like plant beds along winding paths and flowing under little Japanese garden-style bridges made of slatted wooden pallets.

A "waterfall" of white plastic chips flows out of the river section of a Rocky Mountain poster over "rocks" made of the cardboard boxes the plastic was transported in. And a "stone wall" of cardboard moving boxes leads into the installation.

The concept and general design of the installation were Galston's, but Milton Academy students from art teacher Anne Neely's class working with Galston also had aesthetic as well as installation input into the project. The "process" of making the "Garden"--the artistic experience for the artist--became a learning experience for the students.

Although they looked at the gallery space, visited a garden and then did drawings of their concepts of an imaginary garden made of plastics for their teacher Anne Neely, few of the students had any clue, at first, how they and their garden would really develop, they admitted at the installation opening.

"I had some of it planned, and some of it was improvised" by the students and I, Galston said. The group laid out sections together and "through a lot of trial and error," said Jennifer Foulke, came up with "a collage of ideas," said Lara Martin. By consensus, with Galston's direction, artist and helpers decided "what didn't look good or did," said Galston. Several students working together, for instance, spontaneously decided together at one point that "we needed more verticals." A "group aesthetic" was developing, said Galston.

The "Garden" developed like a real one--through a lot of hard, repetitive labor necessary to produce a finished garden. Half a ton of plastic chips had to be laid out carefully. The different colored chips couldn't be mixed or they couldn't be returned to the recycling center later--"they melt at different temperatures," said Galston.

So students would shovel chips endlessly, then go through a careful ritual of arranging them. Larger pieces were laid out in rows and furrows, like real plants. And some beds were bordered with long, plastic sausage bags donated by Foulke's meat-packing businessman father. Foulke and others spent hours just laboriously hand-stuffing the bags with plastic chips.

And there were 200 plastic baggies to fill with peat moss and grass, wheat grass, or radish seeds to create natural-unnatural "terrariums" that sit sprouting on worktables in the garden The terrariums were hand-filled, watered before and after the seeds were planted, and then inflated laboriously "by blowing air into the bags with plastic straws" to give the seeds air, humidity and room to grow in.

"It became a kind of ritual for me...that kept me connected in a simple way" with her natural subject, said Galston.

As the garden grew, the students learned that making art is a mental and physical process with a guiding idea--an experience, not just the finished product---just as a garden and even artificial products like plastics are processes.

"It was hard, at first, to work toward someone else's main idea," said Jen Foulke. "It's different from doing a project on your own." "Beth as the artist had definite ideas," agreed Martin. "But we could spark ideas with her."

For instance, Martin talked with Galston about using foam plastic trays to represent stones in a garden and about good spatial design--then Martin became responsible for the "stone" placement.

Another student working in a rose-toned bed of multicolored chips, meanwhile, found her flower-printed sneakers an object of inspiration for the group. They came off to become part of the flower bed itself yet also the typical working shoes of a gardener. And along the way, Galston was inspired to add whimsical car and home deodorizers--in the shape of pine trees and mushrooms--to the artistic landscape.

And the garden will continue growing--the live sprouts are about to grow out of their baggies and will later be gifts when the installation is dismantled, said Galston.

"Garden" will remain on display through April 29 in the basement level Nesto gallery in Milton Academy's Science Building. Gallery hours are weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. For information, you may call 698-7880.