I cannot claim this as a review – rather the editor’s privilege to produce a brief, pictorial indication of what is to be seen at this exhibition, which we visited in the drizzle on the 31st July. I have a pile up of material waiting to be published here (our first blog review soon..) and life has been hectic, so, my apologies, especially for not crediting the sculptures.
I think the combination of sculpture and garden is an interesting subject in its own right – do they really complement each other, unless the garden is specifically designed for the works in question? Answers in an email if you have 800 words worth on the topic…(see also Helen Gazeley)
The exhibition is open at Painswick Rococo Garden until the end of the month. Details here. All the pictures are my own.
Anne Wareham, editor
You can see where we are from the interesting building..
Those are faux sheep..
People get excited, much picture taking..(how much looking?)
For the birds…
Do you like labels in the garden?
You are supposed to be admiring the copper leaves…
A bit sinister?
A bit twee?
Love this – apart from the sadly no doubt needed notice.. One of those sad things which appear in the garden..
No. Don’t do this.
It is still a garden with gardeny bits, and unfortunately has roses…
And this kind of thing, which is really not good enough when you’re putting on a show..
The title of this piece is a tease – people are supposed to love lists.
Anne Wareham. Garden and garden blog here
What an awesome garden, the sculptures also makes the garden look more interesting. This must be a really big garden too, I would like to see a birds eye view of the whole garden and then I could make a better judgement. However, all in all it looks like a lovely garden that has history.
Sculture in the garden and its success or lack thereof often depends on the viewer as well as the context. I do like several of the items shown above, but quite a a few others just seem to be out of context, not really doing anything for their surroundings which is a real shame.
I agree that sculpture and gardens can make unhappy bedfellows, but I think that’s always when the sculpture is considered in isolation by whoever places it, rather than it plus the surroundings being considered as the whole artwork. Sculpture exhibitions present a bit of a problem, because there are a certain number of sculptures that have to be exhibited, and they have to be put somewhere. Like Paul, I don’t think that all the sculptures at Art in the Garden look comfortable, and usually the worst scenario is when a sculpture is plonked in the middle of grass.
Funnily enough, I was just in the middle of writing about good placement of sculpture on my blog, when I read this, so I’ve refered to this discussion. Not everything worked at Chelsea Physic, but one piece, Lee, seemed to me to exhbit perfect placement.
I had only just added a link (above in editorial introduction) to your blog post! Thanks…
People shape and sculpt plants which naturally want to grow in an uncontrolled way, they use them to lead the eye, to create features etc, this is sculpture. I think sculpture can be very much a part of a garden, look at the small sculpture garden in St Ives at Barbera Hepworth’s studio….. Her forms with curves and holes are a reflection of natural forms and fit well in a small space even though they are large pieces. I have to say looking at the ‘amazing photography’ I am not sure that some of those sculptures fit well in the landscape, but the thing is if they were put in a garden space created for them they may work well…such is the nature of art and form. Not that I know what I am talking about !
I was interested in your feature & felt I could offer a different viewpoint to the discussion. The gardens are run by a Trust and need to widen participation in order to attract new visitors and subsequent revenue. This will help fund a new visitor entrance when the lease on the existing building runs out in a few years time.
The original frivolous and playful nature of a Rococo garden lends itself to occasional events & shows – as an exhibitor I feel privileged to display my work there, as its a very different experience to showing indoors for both me and the viewer. The intention is for people to experience & discuss both the work & the gardens. The classes run by New Brewery Arts in conjunction with the exhibition also aim to enhance the interaction with garden & sculptures through making/ drawing/ painting, which should attract yet another type of visitor. Many of these people would not necessarily visit the garden as frequently if there wasn’t something new to experience.
I know this garden quite well as it’s just up the hill from me – I haven’t seen it this busy since snowdrop time (sorry Anne!) so clearly sculptures are a pull. Not sure many of the pictures excite me though…
Hope you mean the content, not my amazing photography…
I think a garden setting can enhance sculpture but I have never actually seen sculpture enhance a garden. As soon as you drop sculpture into a garden setting, it takes centre stage shouting “Look at me! Look at me!” (that is an Australian reference, BTW, to a show called ‘Kath and Kim’.) The garden becomes a backdrop. If you stage a sculpture exhibition in the garden, everybody will walk around looking at the sculpture, not the garden.
When it comes to gardening, we would rather feature plants rather than thinking that sculpture can create the highly valued ‘focal point’. It doesn’t – it dominates.