I got a chance to visit a wonderful art exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens last week. The show is called
"Kizuna: East Meets West" and features some extraordinary work by two installation artists, Tetsunori Kawana and Stephen Talasnik, both using bamboo and integrating their sculpture into the landscape.
 |
| "The Shape of Fundamental Energy II" II. |
 |
| Detail |
 |
| Detail |
First,
Tetsunori Kawana's work: two very large scale pieces; they start out as fresh, green bamboo and slowly dry and turn their current color once installed. The one above reminds me of a whirlwind. It's a tall piece, maybe 10 feet high?
 |
| "Passage: Culture Current""s |
The arched sculpture was huge in area but not as tall as the "whirlwind" and was a wonderful contrast to the grassy hill. Part of it looked like golden wheat bending in the wind or tunnels you might crawl under. The artist indicates the loopy forms represent water connecting two cultures. You may view his website
here with more photos and video.
 |
| Another view |
This part of the sculpture was more chaotic as compared to the part near the top of the grassy hill, with bundles of bamboo looping like giant ribbons in the landscape.
Stephen Talasnik's sculptures all floated on a rectangular lily pond; in fact, they are called "The Floating World" on
his website. They were made from thin bamboo and some other elements that were used to add texture as well as fastening the bamboo together: wire and zip-ties.
 |
| A "boat" |
These pieces were like pencil sketches floating on the water and seemed very fragile. A few reminded me of boats/vessels but one piece looked like skeletal remains of microscopic sea creatures. I do not know the titles of the pieces.
 |
| A basket-like form |
 |
| A "raft"? |
 |
| "Tower" |
 |
| Bonsai bougainvillea |
 |
| Red lilies in a pond |
 |
| Shofu-en, the new Japanese Garden |
I did see other parts of the garden, including the Japanese Garden, and the new Bill Hosokawa Bonsai Pavilion. The only bad thing was I didn't get to spend more time there! Click
here to view slideshows of the artists working with teams of people installing the bamboo.
Enjoy!
~Reb
PS: The next entry will be photos of a printmaking workshop I'm taking in Santa Fe, New Mexico next week!
Wow those are some beautiful sculptures, did not know you could make sculptures using bamboo, absolutely stunning. We are a Tree Service in Denver and stumbled on your blog browsing different sites relative to our industry. Very cool stuff, glad I found this site.
ReplyDeleteMost homeowners who dabbles in bend irrigation their yards concentrates mostly in beautifying their back yards and leaving alone their front yards. Considering that most homes have more spaces in their backyards homeowners tend to spend more time at the back of their houses rather than in the front.
ReplyDeleteBrushing on a regular basis is necessary to prevent the grass fibres from getting interlocked with each other. O'Neill's Green Services
ReplyDelete