Sunday, November 18, 2007

Glass Birds In the Rain Forest

A couple of years ago, the Missouri Botanical Garden was filled with the work of Tacoma, Washington, glass sculptor Dale Chihuly. Some of the work was left in the garden after the main show closed. I have posted some photos in the past, like this one back in April.

This shot was taken in the Climatron, a big geodesic dome designed by R. Buckminster Fuller that contains a tropical rain forest environment. This group reminds me of a family of elegant mutant flamingos.

TOMORROW: Tough Neighborhood

7 comments:

Chuckeroon said...

Yes, isn't it amazing how tropical plants often look so perfect and solid that they seem to be manufactured? These are molten glass scultures, but they could be plants e.g. orchids.

I'm impressed by your yesterday's cloud shot....dramatic.

Tks for dropping in on R u T.

Anonymous said...

There was a Chihuly exhibition at Kew Gardens (London) a couple of years back, it's amazing how well the sculptures fitted with the plants. I recognised it even from the small portal photo!

Anonymous said...

Oh so gorgeous...Chihuly. Wish I had some of his stuff dotting my garden!

Ming the Merciless said...

Cool! Are these sculptures and the globes from April on permanent display at the Missouri Botanical Garden or are they there just for the holidays?

Olivier said...

on se croirait dans un monde inconnu, de la SF ;o)
It is like an unknown world, the SF ;o)

Anonymous said...

My wife and I loved the Chihuly exhibit. We even went on one of the night showings, which was excellent, too!

I probably took 300 or 400 pictures there during the exhibit.

The glass pieces look so delicate, but they had samples of the glass you could pick up and examine and it was quite strong.

• Eliane • said...

It;s gorgeous, isn't it? The exhibit was here at the Bronx Botanical Garden last year. I thought it was wonderful. His sculptures are the perfect marriage with the plants.