The Forest Spiral
An open-air meditation temple made of glass suspended in the forest at Beyul Retreat by Lara Whitley
As part of the Beyul art vision — to put art, culture and music at the forefront of our mission — we’ve hosted multiple artist residencies this year and begun to curate a number of land-art installations on the property. Our latest is a collaboration with Lara Whitley, artist and 2021 Aspen Art Museum Artistic Fellow.
The Forest Spiral is sited in a natural spiral of lodgepole pines. Reaching 125’ in length and 16’ at its highest point, the art installation creates a 540 square foot enclosure for meditation, ceremony and ritual.
Art + Nature + Ceremony
Beyul & Lara share a belief in the restorative power of art and nature. We plan to offer guided meditations, rituals and ceremonies at the Forest Spiral. Lara looks forward to welcoming school children to the site for mindfulness and hiking field trips and collaborating with local nonprofits on programming.
Free Community Access
The site is located on the 10th Mountain Division Trail, ensuring that the Forest Spiral will be free and open to the community via the public trail easement on Beyul land.
The Process
Lara lives and works in Aspen, which boomed as a silver-mining outpost many decades before it became a ski town. She forages for glass in abandoned dumping grounds from the mining era, before there were modern landfills. More than a century later, in these hidden forest places, she finds “mountain glass.” It’s like sea glass, but tumbled by gravity and dirt, instead of waves and water. Forest Spiral is made of this foraged glass, suspended from a spiral of lodgepole pines.
Honoring + Protecting the Forest
Our goal is to honor the forest, which lies on Ute Indian ancestral homeland, and inspire visitors to protect it. As a space for healing and contemplation, "doing no harm" — to the trees, wildlife and habitat — has been at the heart of design decisions. Lara has consulted with a biologist and a wildlife expert, as well as arborist best practices. The first step was to remove old barbed wire (from previous owners) that was girdling some of the trees, making room for new growth and a new relationship with the forest. To reach final design, Lara consulted with Colorado Parks & Wildlife, Pitkin County, a biologist, and a wildlife expert, as well as arborist best practices. Land acknowledgements and blessings are integral parts of the project.
About Lara Whitley
Lara Whitley creates installations that explore the relationship between the human and natural worlds. As a 2021 Artistic Fellow of the Aspen Art Museum, she developed two contemplative spaces in the forest, including “Forest Spiral” and "Earthly Palace" at the Aspen Space Station. Her work "Homecoming" won the People’s Choice Award at the 2019 Art of the State, Colorado’s triennial juried show.
