BALANCE

 

Last in the series of sculptures in the Patterns In Nature show at the Missouri Botanical Garden. This one is, appropriately, called Balance. The structure on the right is the entry building with the shop, restaurant, meeting rooms and such.                

JEWEL

 

First, a correction. I said that the sculpture in yesterday's post was called Balance. The paper map the Missouri Botanical Garden gave us was not clear. That piece is called Pyrite Field. Pyrite is commonly known as fool's gold. This one, if I got it right from the garden's website, is part of an assembly called Jewel Garden. It had the best light projection onto the pathway.                     

BALANCE

 

The name of the sculpture seems appropriate, but it may have to have more to do with structural engineering and metallurgy than a delicate balance of forces. As I edited this picture I thought of the exquisite and often unexpected equilibrium of forces in Alexander Calder's sculpture. This work, it seems to me, stresses the technical over the natural.                     

PEARLS IN AN OYSTER

 

That's the association I got when I first started editing this picture, if maybe a science-fictiony version. The geodesic dome, the Climatron, pulsed with solid and patterned colors.

I've got a few more of these to go. Not getting out on the street much, and when I go to an event like this I use a rollator. A new lumbar MRI was, well, a mess. Steroid shots next week as a stop-gap before travel, and then we'll see what the doc recommends. Gotta get more mobile.               

ACROSS THE REFLECTING POOL

Metal flower petals in the botanical garden's central reflecting pool. The geodesic dome known as the Climatron is in the background. The installation has the puzzling name As Above, So Below.                       

VANISHING POINT

I had a picture of this a while ago in the daytime, It's much more interesting at night, with the lights within the cut-out metal tower, the patterns on the pavement and the red light inside the mausoleum of Henry Shaw. He was the rich 19th Century businessman and amateur botanist who founded the Missouri Botanical Garden and adjacent Tower Grove Park.                     

INSIGHT + POLYHEDRA

 

That's the name of this installation at the Patterns In Nature show at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Insight perhaps because you can go into the form on the right. (One at a time, please.) Waiting for a turn adds something to the image.                   

FLOATING IN AIR

 

This work, which I think is called Point of View, appears to be suspended over a gentle, sphere-like fountain.  However, it is inside a gazebo and suspended by a cable from the roof. The photo preserves the illusion.                     

CONSTELLATION

 

I think that's what this one is called. (Correction welcome. It's hard to tell looking back at the map they gave us.) Given the right surface, the projections on the ground are as interesting as the sculpture itself.                   

PATTERNS IN NATURE

 

A little while ago I had a series of posts about an outdoor sculpture show at the Missouri Botanical Garden of work by a group called HYBYCOZO. The structures all have lights within and a few nights a week the public is invited to see the result. They call this version Patterns In Nature. Lots of dramatic shots but this is a good start.                     

VANISHING POINT

 

A last image (for now) from the HYBYCOZO exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The caption is the name of this piece. The building on the left is the mausoleum of Henry Shaw, the 19th Century philanthropist who founded the place.

Tomorrow is City Daily Photo's monthly theme day, on the subject of travel. I'll be posting what I think is the best photo of my career.                 

OPTICS

Close-up of one of the faces of a work in the HYBYCOZO exhibit called Rhombi. It's easier to perceive from farther away but think of the central hexagon as an approximate cube with the nearest corner in the lower right, sitting in a recessed space that fits it.                           

TONGUE OF FLAME

 

That's what this one at the HYBYCOZO exhibit at the botanical garden makes be think of. The title of the piece is Point of View. Looks more like a sacred flame.

Something new and interesting to photograph today.                      

TESSELATION

 

That's the title of this piece at the HYBYCOZO exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The dictionary built into my Mac defines the word as   an arrangement of shapes closely fitted together, especially of polygons in a repeated pattern without gaps or overlapping. It sits in front of the Climatron, a geodesic dome with such sophisticated air systems that it contains four different climate zones.              

RIPPLES OF LIGHT

 

That's the title of this trio of objects in the botanical garden's reflecting pool at the HYBYCOZO exhibit. Can't wait to see it in the evening, lit from within, dancing across the water and lily pads.                    

BALANCE

I'm going to wander around the HYBYCOZO exhibit at the botanical garden for a bit. It's interesting and the garden is always worth a visit. This one is called Balance and it must have taken a fair amount of math to work out. All of the works have lights within them. The garden is open in the evening on weekends and we plan to go back for another look.                      

HYBYCOZO

 

Change of scene to another St. Louis institution. The gorgeous Missouri Botanical Garden often has outdoor exhibits of special sculpture or lighted seasonal displays. Through this summer and into next month there has been a show called Patterns In Nature - The Art of HYBYCOZO, https://www.hybycozo.com/. Its website doesn't explain the name. We waited for a cooler day to check it out. This piece at the entrance is called Escher. I can sort of see the step figures but not the up-down-left-right warping of the Dutch artist.                            

CHIAROSCURO

 

I went back to the next to last day of the orchid show yesterday. It was so crowded on Saturday that we made it about a third of the way through and left. Not so bad on a weekday. It was beautifully clear, which created interesting lighting opportunities in the glass walled and ceilinged gallery.                   

POTENTIAL

 

It is striking that something as complex as an orchid can come from a simple, symmetrical bud, or, in this case, a cascade of them. It makes for nice layers.              

LOOKS LIKE CANDY

 

Orchids come in an astounding variety of shapes, sizes and colors. I'm no botanist (where I grew up the ground cover was cement and asphalt) but I've never seen anything like this. A sign said it was called something like a spider orchid. I don't think of spiders as curly and pink but what do I know. Looks to me roll-up candy.