garden magic

hadley + i spent the holiday monday at van dusen gardens.

we shared a picnic lunch with friends + spent the rest of the day wandering the grounds [fifty-five acres!].

the elizabethan maze is a favourite [though it always reminds me of the shining!].

in the summer of 1975, twelve internationally-renowned artists were invited to spend the summer creating sculptures for the gardens.  they were given their choice of site + stone [marble or travertine]. 

 

'family life' [travertine] by david f. marshall

 

'observing your society' [marble] by david ruben

"... they give a monumental character of scale to the overall landscape. one definition of good garden sculpture is that once admired, it should blend and almost disappear in the landscape, not detracting one's attention from the living collections. this may be the reason why abstract sculpture is sometimes more successful than the representational kind which may evoke images that impinge too much on the quiet flow of ideas that one likes to enjoy in a garden" - retired van dusen curator r. roy forster, oc

'landscape 75' [travertine] by jiro sugarawa

'horizontal column' [black marble] by wolfgang kubach + anna-maria wilmsen-kubach

'meta morphosis' [marble] by olga jancic

 

korean pavilion

in addition to these permanent installations - the 'earth art' exhibition is currently on display.  the group of five internationally acclaimed artists used natural materials found on the garden grounds and the results are breathtaking.

hadley was immediately drawn to the 'little green dress projekt' by nicole dextras.  made from "rushes to roses to radishes" the tagline for the project is: "wear it or compost it".

'sequoia piece' by nils-udo.  my photo doesn't show the full scale of this piece.  the sequoia's are over twenty metres high and the palm fronds travel all the way up.

the twenty-five foot 'zipper' made of salvaged douglas fir by urs twellmann [who describes the piece: 

" ... it's like the land is clothed in grass, and the zipper opens up the earth underneath"].

'earth art' is on now until the end of september 2012.