Chihuly: A New Eden

My first Chihuly sighting was his magnificent Isola di San Giacomo in Palude Chandelier II in the Milwaukee Art Museum. I then began to notice his stunning glasswork elsewhere. The Crystal Tree of Light, designed for the White House Millennium celebration, now permanently installed in the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. The dramatic Fiori di Como hovering over the Bellagio lobby in Sin City. Campiello del Remer #2, the 9-foot chandelier gracing the entrance to the Glass Pavilion of Toledo’s Museum of Art. And the permanent collection of our own Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park: the Gilded Champagne Gardens Chandelier in the Atrium and Lena’s Garden in the Taste of the Gardens Cafe.  But it was the Gardens’ temporary exhibit we had come to see.

As a student in interior design, Dale Chihuly was first introduced to glass while at the University of Washington. He continued at Rhode Island School of Design, where he later established its glass program and taught for more than a decade. He went on to study in Venice, which exposed him to the team approach to glass blowing, and later returned to Washington where he founded the Pilchuck Glass School. While in England in 1976, he was involved in a head-on collision and flew through the windshield of his car. His face severely cut by glass, he was blinded in his left eye. After recovering, he continued to blow glass until he dislocated his shoulder in a 1979 bodysurfing accident. No longer able to hold the glass blowing pipe, he hired others to do the work and, with their collaboration, continues to lead the way in fine art glass blowing. His well-known series of works include Baskets, Persians and Seaforms, and are included in more than 200 museum collections worldwide.

Chihuly’s passion for glass has grown into a series of exhibitions within botanical settings. My Aunt Cecile has a Meijer Gardens membership and invited me to join her for lunch and a day of perusing Chihuly: A New Eden, 15 locations in a site-specific exhibition developed in celebration of the Gardens’ 15th anniversary. How could I refuse such an offer?

While the skies were overcast, the rain held off. We couldn’t have asked for better browsing weather. Sporting comfy shoes, we covered all the nooks and crannies of the Gardens. Many hours later we managed to see every one of the 15 sites.

SITE 1: ENGLISH PERENNIAL AND BULB GARDENS

Citron Green and Red Tower

Garden Glass

SITE 2: ARID CONSERVATORY

Oops!  No photos!

SITE 3: LENA MEIJER TROPICAL CONSERVATORY

Ikebana

Basket Forest

Persians

SITE 4: VOLUNTEER TRIBUTE GARDEN

 

Rose Crystal Tower

The juxtaposition of modern glasswork coordinating side by side with the beauty of nature was absolutely amazing. I fell in love with some pieces immediately while it took a bit for others to grow on me, but I loved them all.

SITE 5: LENA MEIJER CHILDREN'S GARDEN

 Eelgrass and Red Bamboo

SITE 6: AMPHITHEATER ENTRANCE

Cobalt and Turquoise Reeds; Floats

SITE 7: AMPHITHEATER HILLSIDE

Red Reeds

SITE 8: CULTURAL COMMONS

Summer Sun

I’ll admit to being especially drawn to the crowd favorite at The Groves and Hekman Pond (Site 9).

Blue Moon and Walla Wallas

Walla Walla

Yellow Boat

SITE 10: SCULPTURE PARK WATERFALL

Niijima Floats

SITE 11: SCULPTURE PARK LOWER FALLS

Lime Crystal Tower

SITE 12: SCULPTURE PARK LOWER POND

Saffron Tower

SITE 13: THE PENINSULA

Neodymium Reeds and Herons

SITE 14: WOODLAND SHADE GARDEN

Yellow Reeds

SITE 15: WETLANDS

Blue Polyvitro Crystals

This exhibition runs through September 30. If you’re in the area and you haven’t yet checked out A New Eden, make sure you take the time to do so.  These photos don’t even begin to do Chihuly’s work justice.

We also enjoyed a portion of the 90-minute documentary, Chihuly in the Hotshop, which continuously plays in the Hoffman Family Auditorium. It chronicles Chihuly’s 2006 residency in the hotshop of the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, a state-of-the-art amphitheater specifically designed to allow an audience to experience glassblowing up close and personal.

Incredibly, we spent nearly six hours at the Gardens. Time certainly does fly when you’re enjoying lunch, an amazing exhibition and each other’s company. I treasured every minute of it! A huge thank you, Aunt Cecile, for sharing your day and this special collection with me (and for being so patient while I took what proved to be 200+ photos!). Much love, many hugs!