Chihuly in the Garden Re-visited

Back in November 2013, I visited the Phoenix Botanical Gardens on the occasion of the opening of Chihuly in the Garden, an exhibition of glass sculpture on display in the gardens. At the conclusion of the blog post, I stated that I wished to return before the exhibition closes this coming May.  I did. Accompanied by my wife Rolande and friends, Hans and Carla Helder I returned this week to see the exhibit in the evening. Excuse the choice of words but my experiences were like night and day. The sculptures are beautifully illuminated, creating a much more dramatic display than I had seen on my earlier daylight visit.

We arrived a little before sunset and were able to see many of the beautiful desert plants and flowers on display. As evening progressed past sunset into nightfall, the glass sculptures became much more visible as the surrounding, unlighted plants became lost in the darkness. I begin today’s post with one of my favourite flowers, the Fairyduster, so named for obvious reasons.

I own’t linger with flowers today, that’s a good subject for another post. I’ll continue with a slideshow of some of my favourite sculptures on display as part of the Chihuly Exhibition. Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur. His works are considered unique to the field of blown glass, moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture. The technical difficulties of working with glass forms are considerable, yet Chihuly uses it as the primary medium for installations and environmental artwork. Chihuly’s work can be found all over the world, including Vancouver, Calgary and Hull in Canada. He also moves some of his work around for exhibitions such as Chihuly in the Garden, where he has artfully integrated his glasswork into the flora of the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. To view the slideshow, click on the right side of the pictures to advance; on the left to reverse direction. PS My favourite picture is the very last one.

The Chihuly in the Garden exhibition continues until May 14, 2014.