Meadow of the Deer

Mark Reigelman II, Meadow of the Deer 

March 2025 

This piece is part of the City of Raleigh municipal collection. It was partially funded by the Percent for Art project. Dix Park Conservancy partnered with Raleigh Arts to raise funds for a third deer to be added to the final piece. 

Nestled in the heart of Dix Park, past the grand plaza and atop a hill, a stag peers across the landscape. Further away in the clearing, a doe and her fawn lazily graze on a quiet patch of grass. In Meadow of the Deer, this family of oversized steel silhouettes casually roam the grounds, paying homage to the park’s historic natural elegance while highlighting its history of healing. Derived from Old English, the word Raleigh loosely translates to mean “meadow of the deer.” Quite fittingly, the stoic profile of a stag wanders the city’s double-sided flag, offsetting the modified coat of arms of Sir Walter Raleigh, after whom the city is named. 

Unity with nature

Dix Park sits on the grounds of the original Dix Hill Asylum, established in the 1850’s by Dorothea Dix, who is responsible for widespread reform around the treatment of the mentally ill in the US. What made the Dix Hill Asylum unique was its focus on the outdoors, with over 300 acres for patients to wander through and explore, which was considered an essential component of the healing process.  

Inspired by the archived drawings of the hospital’s former patients, which often focused on radial and repetitive gestures as a means of calming the mind, Meadow of the Deer’s radiating sculptural linework consists of layers of steel radiating in an x-formation from the center outward. This stratified approach allows for a unique level of transparency and environmental integration. As visitors walk around the clearing, the works will disappear into the landscape when viewed at certain angles before boldly returning. Much like those that wandered the grounds of Dix Hospital in the years before, the artwork will arrive significantly contrasting its environment. But over the following months and years, as the forms continue to converse with the surrounding environment, they will slowly transform, in color and texture, until unity with nature is achieved.

Project Partners   

Artist Statement

Walking through the grounds of the original Dix Hill Asylum, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own experiences with the realities of mental health. My family has long faced the challenges that come with it—treatment-resistant depression, debilitating anxiety, and schizophrenia have all left their marks. Yet, we have also witnessed resilience—through counseling, therapy, modern medicine, treatments, and community, we are finding ways to lead fulfilling lives. 

Recently, my mother emerged from years of devastating depression – a journey she never chose, but one that required a Wizard of Oz-size cast to help her through. She had always been the bright yellow thread weaving each family member into a tightly knit tapestry, but as her illness took hold, that thread began to fray. Her enveloping hugs turned metallic, hollow, and unoiled. Her animated laughter, once infectious, went from Technicolor to monochrome. And the glittery heel-taping joy that defined her rolled up and coiled into the shadows. Her absence was felt in every corner of our lives, casting a heavy, unshakeable cloud over our family.  

Since her recovery, my mother has described her depression as a black fog where reality and anxiety-driven illusions blurred together. It was a world where the contours of her surroundings shifted unpredictably, always just out of focus. 

This description profoundly influenced my approach to Meadow of the Deer. I wanted the sculpture to embody that sense of disorientation and transformation, forms that waver between absence and presence. As visitors move around the installation, the deer silhouettes will seem to vanish into the landscape, only to reappear unexpectedly, like fleeting clarity in a troubled mind. 

Materially, I sought a medium that could reflect both struggle and resilience. Corten steel, with its evolving patina, reveals time’s passage—its stains and drips acting as echoes of past wounds, its self-healing properties symbolizing recovery and adaptation. Just as the patients of Dix Hill found solace in nature, this work acknowledges both the weight of mental illness and the quiet strength it takes to journey down the meandering brick road back home. 

About Mark Reigelman 

Mark Reigelman is an American artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Reigelman was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He pursued his studies in Sculpture and Industrial Design at the Cleveland Institute of Art and furthered his education in product design at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts in London.  He is recognized for his large-scale public art, including Manifest Destiny at the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco, California, and Smökers, a series of miniature houses positioned over steam-emitting manholes in New York City.

Reigelman's work reevaluates the everyday, reinvigorates gathering spaces, and engages with urban and rural conditions. These interventions attempt to reorient one’s perception and inspire a renewed collective consciousness. By favoring the process of research and exploration, he has a unique body of work poised between abstraction and literal representation, guided by a clear conceptual foundation and whimsical synthesis. It is this bold, site-specific approach to reimagining spaces that he hopes to apply to each artwork he creates.