Impermanent sculptures of branches and vines by American artist Patrick Dougherty

My favourite artist of the day is the 78-year-old American Patrick Dougherty, who makes fantastical sculptures out of twigs and saplings. Dougherty's chief technique is stickwork: armed with stems, secateurs and a saw, he clothes the familiar furniture of the landscape (walls, fences, trees, hillocks) in new and improbable shapes. His work belongs to the art of working with the environment, and what lends the sculptures a particular poignancy is their impermanence: fastened with no metal fittings, within a few years they begin to fall apart of their own accord, while the untreated wood moulders and rots under the action of the elements.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Impermanent sculptures of branches and vines by American artist Patrick Dougherty

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s