Spirits arise in Phoenix

I took a walk amongst some amazing sculptures by Dale Chihuly at Scottsdale's Desert Botanic Garden. It was amazing to see forms of desert plants echoed by glass. It was his first desert botanic garden installation. I find that odd, as the glass seems to fit so well. You could almost just believe that the forms were alive.

As we walked along and looked at the many installations that were very skilfully placed, I realized that there was a wonderful feedback between the forms and the plants. Seeing the sculptures made the plants look more like artistic objects. The plants made the sculptures seem more playful, as if they were impish sprites that alighted next to the cacti and were imitating them.

Interestingly, the names of the art pieces indicated that they were not actually representing plant forms in most cases. Many were named for things like boats, scorpions, etc. The very skillful botanists and artists apparently got together and made the display based on not only convergence of form and essence, but with an eye to that sort of playful interaction.

What a wonderful exhibit. I will never look at plants in a botanic garden the same way.