A bird’s nest of giant proportions — 20 feet in diameter — was completed just in time for the Old Lyme Midsummer Festival celebration at Studio 80 + Sculpture Grounds.

The nest was not constructed by an albatross or a condor or any other enormous winged creature. It is the creation of Mystic sculptor David Madacsi, and, like all of the artist’s work, beyond its aesthetic beauty and intricacy, it makes a larger statement.

The nest is woven with both natural materials — tree limbs, branches, vines, twigs, reeds and grasses — and discarded plastic wastes, including lengths of garden hose and synthetic rope, mesh from plastic baskets, pieces of vinyl siding, plastic trim from appliances, and autos, insulation and packaging materials.

“It focuses on the implications of our throwaway world and the problems of pollution and synthetic materials,” Madacsi explains.

He says the objective is to focus attention on the increasing prevalence of discarded and found objects that, among other undesirable characteristics, do not readily degrade.

“One aspect (of the nest) is that what you see from a distance to be a very appealing piece of work that you’re drawn to, as you come closer, you begin to see that there is this ugly stuff that won’t go away. So there is this dichotomy of beauty and ugliness,” he says.

It’s called “Fettered Nest,” Madacsi adds.

“To me, titles are important. I really enjoy them. I like puns, but sort of more than that, it gives people a clue of how to look at things, what I had in mind,” he says.

This is the second large nest on Madacsi’s resume. He made one about 10 feet in diameter out of natural materials, which was installed in 2011 on the grounds of the Mystic Art Association, now Mystic Museum of Art.

“One thing I wanted to achieve was that, in seeing it, you might expect a large bird to swoop down and land on it, and birds did land on it,” he says.

Physics embraces art and vice versa

Madacsi is a physicist and self-taught artist. A native of Youngstown, Ohio, he moved to Mystic in 1976, becoming a faculty member at University of Connecticut. He took early retirement from the university in 2003, retaining academic standing as Professor of Physics Emeritus while pursing art and related writing full time. His insights into the physical world inform his creative work, and, for Madasci, the transition is quite logical and natural.

“I always thought physics was a very creative realm, and I was always consciously aware of it,” he says.

Madacsi was first was introduced to the local art scene in 1991, when he co-founded the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art on the UConn campus at Avery Point, along with gallery director Julia Pavone.

“Alexey had been a colleague, and when he passed away in 1988, we thought we should start a gallery in his honor, and when Julia came along, she really responded, and we both made it happen,” Madacsi recalls. “So I began to be involved with artists on a regular basis, and the one thing artists often talk about is the quality of the light being special in places like Provence, New Mexico, Venice and Old Lyme.”

Madacsi became fascinated with the interconnectedness of light, art and place and the question of whether there is really something special about the light in these places and, if so, what’s special about it? He’s writing a book about the subject.

“As a physicist, I could make different measurements of the spectrum of light and those kinds of things,” he says. “But I didn’t think that would be productive, so I began to do photography, which meant I’d travel to all of these places. Photographing light in the environment is how it started.

“Then I started doing assemblages with found objects,” he continues. “It always intrigued me that looking at an object tells you something about its history. Putting things together, assembling them, came naturally. It feels like a form of play to me.”

Today, Madacsi’s work includes light-art-place photography as well as found-object sculpture and environmental installations.

“I go where the muse takes me,” Madacsi says. “I love that about creativity, about working in visual art. The other thing is, in physics, (the challenge) is to discover what are the laws? And, in art, it’s to either make up your own laws or rules or find ways to break the existing rules that still works.”

Another important aspect to Madacsi’s work is the concept of entropic processes and forces — including light and how, as a result, his site-specific installations exposed to the elements are often significantly accelerated.

“It’s a measure of disorder and, in all-natural processes, things move from an ordered to disordered state — decaying, weathering, fading, etc.”

Although Madacsi shows in many galleries and venues in the region, this is his first time exhibiting at Studio 80 + Sculpture Grounds.

“One of the things I like about it is it’s in this great natural environment — it backs up to the Lieutenant River,” he points out, “and that there are monumental sculptures, mostly very contemporary, but also room for things that are more site-specific and ephemeral. I like the combination of (short-lived) pieces with things that are meant to last, not necessarily created for the space.”

In addition to making his own art, Madacsi has become aware of how hard it is for the arts to get funding in economically difficult times and how local arts organizations couldn’t exist without community support. He served as director of arts and cultural programs at the UConn Avery Point campus until he retired and is on the board of Mystic Museum of Art and continues to serve as AvS Gallery’s founding board chairman and associate curator — emphasizing that efforts to keep the gallery from closing are ongoing.

“It’s important when the opportunity comes, to say, ‘Now it’s my turn to do some of this,'” he says. “There’s an emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), but there are a lot of people who think the emphasis should be on STEAM (adding “Art” to the acronym). Whenever I have the opportunity to influence that, I do.”

The sculptors

The juried Summer Sculpture Showcase 2016 at Gil Boro’s Studio 80 + Sculpture Grounds, Old Lyme, features works created by 17 sculptors interspersed among Boro’s own sculptures, along with works by 13 other contributing artists.

The 17 sculptors exhibiting a total of 25 pieces of work in this year’s show are: Mark Attebery, Diane Barcelo, Ashby Carlisle, Bryan Gorneau, Gints Grinbergs, Lannie Hart, Jay Hoagland, Deborah Hornbake, Conrad Levenson, Elaine Lorenz, David Madacsi, Liza Masalimova, Sui Park, Chris Plaisted, Bill Vollers, Martha Walker and Melanie Zibit.