The E.T. Wickham site in Palmyra, Tennessee, is one of the country’s spookiest art environments, even in the open field to which the family has relocated most of the statues. Credit the vandals who wrecked the work, but even more the ghost of E.T.’s vision that survived their pummeling.
The statues lining the north-central Tennessee back road were erected in the 1950s and 60s by Enoch Tanner Wickham to honor historical figures and family members. They did not fare well after his death in 1970s, but their state seems to have mostly stabilized.
Thirteen years ago Wickham family members relocated most of the statues to a slightly less back back road. While it’s on the edge of a clear farm field rather than next to woods like the original site, the effect when the work comes into view is still powerful. And several statues remain in the first location.
When I see how compelling these ruins remain, I’m reminded of Wickham’s Civil War tribute: “It is all over with now Bill and well that it is as it is.”
I recently made my first visit to the site in some 25 years:
Here are my images of Wickham’s ravaged stone park, taken in the mid-1990s:
Read my review of E.T. Wickham: A Dream Unguarded, the catalog for the 2001 Wickham exhibit at the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, Tennessee.
Here are photos of the 2001 Wickham exhibit at the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, Tennessee, and a page with beautiful original photos by Clark Thomas from the 1970s, some of which were used in the exhibit’s catalog.
Check out this article with comments from Wickham’s grandson, Joe Schibig, who posted these two photos of E.T. and some of his statues intact. See Joe’s post here.
Finally, for the historically minded, here is a link to my original 1995 post of Wickham photos — one of the first environments I tried to document online.
These are very interesting sculptures!