Art or Indulgence?

[MrGongGong]

OK. I concede to that (Kew being more than one thing) but I still think this is an easy attraction. Well of course you (one) can say ‘what’s wrong with that? It draws more visitors to the place’. Ah well. David Bowie prom.

The Ibiza Prom was cr*p
but there is space for oddities

....... my coat n'all

[eighthobstruction]

Some of the exhibits shown on yesterday's lunchtime news DID detract for me, in a gaudy, "Look at me" kind of way. Eighth's comparison with Jeff Coons is about right, ime: ostentatious ornaments, rather than sculptures. I think seeing them up close would tend to enhance that impression.

....glorified window dressing....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

vinteuil and ferneyhoughgeliebte
Kew gardens are not ornamental gardens that are meant to be admired as designed places. It is a place where people go to see living plants from all over the world.

Nor are the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens, Logan Botanical Gardens, or Harlow Carr, dovers.

Nobody here seems to be exactly over-thrilled with the Kew glass statues - but then we are all, it seems, reacting to the photograph, rather than to the sculptures themselves - but my own answer to the question you posed in your OP was voiced in the opening sentence in my first post immediately after that OP.

[gradus]

They should have spent the money on eg some unusual vars. of Chinese/American/Canadian/Japanese tree peonies. Far more exotic and fragrant too. They don't need space in a greenhouse either.

[doversoul1]

They should have spent the money on eg some unusual vars. of Chinese/American/Canadian/Japanese tree peonies. Far more exotic and fragrant too. They don't need space in a greenhouse either.

I wasn’t brave enough to mention the cost side of the thing.

Mr GG #28

When I visited Tokyo I was struck by these kinds of things

What kind of things and how/why were you struck by them?

Ferneyhoughgeliebte
As for ‘gardens’, I concede to that (#30).

[oddoneout]

They should have spent the money on eg some unusual vars. of Chinese/American/Canadian/Japanese tree peonies. Far more exotic and fragrant too. They don't need space in a greenhouse either.

Not all the sculptures will be indoors I believe. They will have a longer season of interest than would peonies(lovely as they are) and appeal to a wider audience.

https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/chihuly-at-kew-reflections-on-nature

Having the sculptures does not preclude adding to the plant collections, but getting additional visitors makes money available to do 'proper' Kew work.
I will not get to see the Chihuly works, but know from other 'sculpture in gardens' experiences that it can be rewarding, not least for being totally different from an art gallery visit.

[doversoul1]

I suppose my feelings about these objects have a lot in common with many people’s feelings about opera. All that money. What’s the point? I wonder how much insurance Kew paid.

[french frank]

N

... the eighteenth century landscape garden was a deliberate evocation of a Poussin / Claude imagining of a Greek / Roman arcadia. The temples were a primary feature, not just an 'embellishment'.
.

Soit - though a comparison between Kew and Stourhead is a bit of a stretch.

The N at the beginning was because it was the interval in the opera and I was posting from my phone which I find awkward - I didn't notice the 'N'.

Also, I think the difference is that the 'English landscape' garden had bridges and follies because they were supposed to be part of an idealised landscape where streams had bridges and stone buildings, especially ruined ones, are part of a picturesque scene: they wouldn't have corrugated iron roofs and piles of old tractor tyres outside. The essential point is that they are intended to be part of the landscape, not separate works of art.

(Good subject for discussion, dover ).

[doversoul1]

Here are some of the Art Works.

Chihuly, now 77, has said that he wants his work "to appear like it came from nature, so that if someone found it on a beach or in the forest, they might think it belonged there."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47910451

These objects may be worth looking at in another space but amongst living plants in a garden, personally I think they look completely out of place and intruding.

[MrGongGong]

Mr GG #28

What kind of things and how/why were you struck by them?

Statues of foxes with scarves

I think we get that you don't like art that doesn't conform to your idea of what art should be

[greenilex]

It does seem to me that very brightly coloured glass has an interior, “gallery” feel to it...which I suppose may be Chihuly’s point in siting the pieces as he does.

Spring at Kew is tempting of itself and doesn’t need other attractions.

[vinteuil]

N
The essential point is that they are intended to be part of the landscape, not separate works of art.

... do you object to pieces of sculpture en plein air :

https://ysp.org.uk/openair

.

https://www.henry-moore.org/visit/henry-moore-studios-gardens

.

https://pallantbookshop.com/product/moore-in-the-bagatelle-gardens-paris/

.

[jayne lee wilson]

The Glass Sculptures at Kew

Objects in-and-out-of-context, human made
yet
forms of
Interplanetary grace

They look like they came from outer space
The Artificial in
The Natural Place

As if Aliens came
Sharing Gifts of Plants -

A sculpture out of
Their Horticulture
To set among
Our nurtured nature

[french frank]

... do you object to pieces of sculpture en plein air :

https://ysp.org.uk/openair

Not in principle But in any case that's a quite different point from the inclusion of bridges and follies &c as 'part of the landscape' versus artworks placed in a landscape or garden setting.

That said, I do have a personal aversion to people and things which SHOUT.

[doversoul1]

Statues of foxes with scarves

I think we get that you don't like art that doesn't conform to your idea of what art should be

Don’t we all? I don’t think we can ever talk about Art without having an idea what we considered what art is. Maybe your idea of art is ‘anything can be art’ and you don’t like it when art is subscribed to one particular idea.

These objects in the Kew gardens are a result of amazing skills and for that, it may be worth seeing them although I wouldn’t have them in my garden even he paid me a fortune. My objection is the Kew’s decision to have these imitation plants amongst the living plants with a huge cost and with a most likely result of distracting the visitors attention from the living plants and their surrounding.

As for the fox, I’m sure you were told but this fox is a messenger of a Shinto deity. It always sits in this pose wearing a red ‘scarf’ which is the sing of its status. These stone foxes are rather like the statues of Mary in Catholic countries. I’m still not sure what this has got to do with this thread.