Thursday, July 20, 2006
a glass act
having nothing but time on my hands now that i'm unemployed (though i've managed to pick up some freelance work recently--- through no fault of my own, i assure you) i decided to go check out glass artist (and total babe) dale chihuly's temporary "gardens and glass" installation at the new york botanical gardens. here's what i saw...
...girls admiring the pink glass sculpture outside of the enid a. haupt conservatory
...a big-ass blue and yellow tower. the pond its in was dyed so that it would better reflect the tower
the effect is pretty striking, as you can see in this picture where it's difficult to see where the tower ends and the reflection begins
...this flower from chihuly's ikebana series
...floating glass forms
...alongside bird-inspired "herons"
..."cattails"
...this glass garden, called rose garden fiori
...these ferns
...and these bowls from chihuly's macchia (which is eyetalian for "stain") series
apparently they were made when chihuly walked into his studio one day, determined to make pieces with all different colors of glass he had at his disposal.
chihuly's art is big, bright and loud, which is usually totally up my alley, but as my date for the day, anna,
pointed out, none of his stuff was necessarily anything most folks would want in their home. we came to the conclusion that glass art can easily look tacky, especially after a lifetime of seeing it almost exclusively in the form of tchochkes in your grandmother's suburban mom's home. i don't mean to diss, obviously it takes incredible skill to create the kinds of intricate, delicate things that chihuly, but sometimes it comes off as a bit... too much. but don't take my word for it. check out what ken johnson of the new york times said about it:
"On paper, inviting Mr. Chihuly to distribute his large-scale glass sculptures about the formal gardens and reflecting pools at the Botanical Garden sounds like a logical idea...
The problem is that Mr. Chihuly's works are similar enough to natural specimens that you tend to compare them unfavorably to the real thing. In each of the Haupt Conservatory's outdoor reflecting pools, for example, he has floated color-coordinated fleets of pod and onion-shaped bulbs and a rowboat heaped with more glass objects. The theatrical effect is initially impressive, but then you find your gaze slipping off the sculptures to fix on the different kinds of lily pads floating on the water, or to follow the darting goldfish below the surface. The glass pieces are pretty, but they are too quickly known and understood. They cannot compete with the infinite subtlety and inexhaustible strangeness of nature.
Mr. Chihuly's sculptures may seem to fare better in isolation, as in a big, explosive cluster of yellow tendril shapes called 'The Sun' elevated on a pole so that it hovers above a round pool near the Botanical Garden's main entrance. A tower of raw, lavender-colored solid glass chunks rising in front of the Haupt Conservatory also stands out...
With the bigger sculptures, however, a problem with Mr. Chihuly's art comes to the fore. It has an immodest, showboating character. In its technical virtuosity and material extravagance, it seems to be crying out: "Look at me! Look at me!" But then when you look closely, there is little more than a sloppy and repetitive decorative opulence to hold your attention."
but i digress...
of course, this being the botanical gardens, there were also (go figure) tons of plants and flowers
and of course, no post of mine would be complete without some sexiness. this fellow was checking out a display on legumes or something, which made me think he was kind a cute plant nerd
as cute as the plant nerd was, though, he'll never be as hot! hot! hot! as the lady i saw at the chicken spot i ate at after my trip to the botanical garden
the fine print says "woman of the moment" btw.
as with my other posts of late, there are more pictures from this adventure posted up on my flickr page. get ta steppin'!
...girls admiring the pink glass sculpture outside of the enid a. haupt conservatory
...a big-ass blue and yellow tower. the pond its in was dyed so that it would better reflect the tower
the effect is pretty striking, as you can see in this picture where it's difficult to see where the tower ends and the reflection begins
...this flower from chihuly's ikebana series
...floating glass forms
...alongside bird-inspired "herons"
..."cattails"
...this glass garden, called rose garden fiori
...these ferns
...and these bowls from chihuly's macchia (which is eyetalian for "stain") series
apparently they were made when chihuly walked into his studio one day, determined to make pieces with all different colors of glass he had at his disposal.
chihuly's art is big, bright and loud, which is usually totally up my alley, but as my date for the day, anna,
pointed out, none of his stuff was necessarily anything most folks would want in their home. we came to the conclusion that glass art can easily look tacky, especially after a lifetime of seeing it almost exclusively in the form of tchochkes in your grandmother's suburban mom's home. i don't mean to diss, obviously it takes incredible skill to create the kinds of intricate, delicate things that chihuly, but sometimes it comes off as a bit... too much. but don't take my word for it. check out what ken johnson of the new york times said about it:
"On paper, inviting Mr. Chihuly to distribute his large-scale glass sculptures about the formal gardens and reflecting pools at the Botanical Garden sounds like a logical idea...
The problem is that Mr. Chihuly's works are similar enough to natural specimens that you tend to compare them unfavorably to the real thing. In each of the Haupt Conservatory's outdoor reflecting pools, for example, he has floated color-coordinated fleets of pod and onion-shaped bulbs and a rowboat heaped with more glass objects. The theatrical effect is initially impressive, but then you find your gaze slipping off the sculptures to fix on the different kinds of lily pads floating on the water, or to follow the darting goldfish below the surface. The glass pieces are pretty, but they are too quickly known and understood. They cannot compete with the infinite subtlety and inexhaustible strangeness of nature.
Mr. Chihuly's sculptures may seem to fare better in isolation, as in a big, explosive cluster of yellow tendril shapes called 'The Sun' elevated on a pole so that it hovers above a round pool near the Botanical Garden's main entrance. A tower of raw, lavender-colored solid glass chunks rising in front of the Haupt Conservatory also stands out...
With the bigger sculptures, however, a problem with Mr. Chihuly's art comes to the fore. It has an immodest, showboating character. In its technical virtuosity and material extravagance, it seems to be crying out: "Look at me! Look at me!" But then when you look closely, there is little more than a sloppy and repetitive decorative opulence to hold your attention."
but i digress...
of course, this being the botanical gardens, there were also (go figure) tons of plants and flowers
and of course, no post of mine would be complete without some sexiness. this fellow was checking out a display on legumes or something, which made me think he was kind a cute plant nerd
as cute as the plant nerd was, though, he'll never be as hot! hot! hot! as the lady i saw at the chicken spot i ate at after my trip to the botanical garden
the fine print says "woman of the moment" btw.
as with my other posts of late, there are more pictures from this adventure posted up on my flickr page. get ta steppin'!
# posted by Sweatpants Money : 7/20/2006 11:22:00 PM
