When art does not enhance the garden

The Chihuly at Kew is generally a masterpiece - see earlier post - but there was one part of it that really disturbed me.

Japanese gardens, as we know, are designed as one integral piece, and are works of art in their own right. Rocks are placed to be mountains. Different gravels form rivers and streams, or bolder strewn borders. Moss makes for painterly covering. A limited palate of well sited and well trained planting gives interest year round. It is an ancient art, practiced by masters and mediated over daily.

Japanese gardens are a joy to behold if you sympathise with the aesthetic. They can take your breath away. But what they do not need is an intrusion of alien colour.

I found the placing of coloured glass spheres at Kew so out of keeping as to be garish, so disrespectful to the garden as to be offensive. They were simply otiose and should have found a home elsewhere.

There, I've said it - quite a mis-step that made the garden look like a game of Disney marbles.

Chihuly at Kew Gardens

 I first took note of the spectacular glass work of American, Dale Chihuly when I lived in San Jose. He had made three chandeliers for the San Jose Museum of Art. These are similar to the one in the entrance hall of the V&A. In 2002 or 2003 there was an amazing exhibition of his sea forms at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which paired with their live jellyfish was an astonishment of beauty.

There are few words to describe his glass sculptural assemblances. Photographs do the work some justice, but these are no substitute for seeing them in person at this summer's unmissable display at Kew. Pick a sunny day to pop along and don't bypass the important though long film, which shows the creating/making process in some depth.

Ten out of ten. Kew have shown his well-sited work before and I missed it. No wonder it's come back for a repeat performance. Oh, and there's some outstanding plants to enjoy as well.