Chihuly glassworks misplaced in the New York Botanical Garden

I was in New York about a week ago and thought I would check out the local gardens. I saw an ad for glass maker Dale Chihuly's appearance at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, so I grabbed a train out there.

I was excited to see what an artist might do with glass sculpture in the gardens. What I encountered, though, was an out of place, out of context display.

The placements of the glass objects and their colorings and shapes seem to bear no connection to their surroundings. As in the desert exhibit above, it was like the artist took no notice of the muted sandy coloring of the succulents, instead choosing to upstage the live display. I found it rather distracting and hard to enjoy the real exhibit—the location is a botanical garden, after all, not a gallery (and one can understand why galleries choose neutral backgrounds for their exhibits.)

Some of the displays seemed to have meaning for Chihuly's previous exhibits elsewhere in the world, but were now lost in translation. I happened to read the program guide after snapping the photo above which explained that in 1995 in Ireland, Chihuly had floated glass objects down a river and children had collected them in row boats. I guess that was the meaning for putting an over-sized row boat in the middle of a formal Amazonian water lily pond. But like before, this was really distracting and over bearing. I tried to block this glass display out of my field of vision so that I could appreciate the real bloom below:

It seemed to me that the only places where the glass scuptures succeeded were the places with neutral gravel scapes and no plants.

I agree initially with the author's view - an artist like Chihuly has been lauded for so long, it appears that his ego disregards the setting in which the pieces reside. Instead of triggering an almost mystical experience as many of his pieces(made in his Seattle studio, where the volcanic essence of the work is a moving contrast to the moody weather) can do, these are brash and jarring, unable to enlighten as they hopefully were intended for.

This isn't the worst of it. While Chihuly is fiddling around with his various collections and bulging bank account his half wit attorneys have embarked upon a doomed campaign to monopolize glass art by waging a ware of frivolous litigation against independent hot shops. It is shameful and desperate.

Come to my website and learn the truth. It will shock and disgust you.

www.chihulyscrewedyou.com

You neglected to mention the SUN sculpture which was magnificent - both as a stand alone sculpture hovering over an empty pond, and within the context of the garden as a fantastic focal point as one enters.