Red Reeds at Twilight © 2014 Bo Mackison
After dark, the installations are illuminated , and offer a totally different viewing experience.
Illuminated Purple Reeds © 2014 Bo Mackison
Summer Sun by Chihuly, Night © 2014 Bo Mackison
Yellow Octopi in the Cacti © 2014 Bo Mackison
Blue Sapphire Star at Night © 2014 Bo Mackison
Blue Fiori Sun ©2014 Bo Mackison
I was lucky enough to attend Chihuly’s first exhibit, The Nature of Glass, in the winter of 2008. I fell in love with his signature hand-blown glass art sculptures. When I discovered a second Chihuly exhibit was returning this winter/spring, I knew I would be back, too.
This time I went better prepared, with six more years of experience with photography, and the proper equipment — a tripod — to handle low light, long exposures. (Still processing the night photos — coming soon!)
Blue Fiori Sun Amid the Desert Green © 2014 Bo Mackison
There are 21 installations in the Phoenix exhibition. I saw 16 of them in a whirlwind 4 hours. I wasn’t planning on making the trip to Phoenix again, and so I tried to see as much as I could — not the way I prefer to see art in any setting. I did take extra time at each installation, just to take in the art glass in desert surroundings, but I seldom had as much time as I would have liked.
Now I’m planning a return visit, determined to build more time into the visit for pure appreciation.
Blue Fiori Sun ©2014 Bo Mackison
There are 21 installations. Major installations are at the entrance, groupings of slender reeds follow pathways, and large works of art highlight the desert landscape. The Blue Fiori Sun, completed in 2013, is one of two major installations at the entrance.
A 2010 creation, Sapphire Sun, greets all visitors as they walk through the gates. Just beyond that global wonder in the Blue Fiori Sun set amid cholla, barrel cacti, and yucca.
Close Up Blue, Fiori Sun © 2014 Bo Mackison
[Chihuly] “produces the psychedelic experience of a magical, glowing, and sparkling, brilliantly alive panorama without drugs. This enchanted glass world has as much to do with Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz as it does with the great Renaissance and Baroque festivals that sovereigns arranged to entertain their courts and subjects.”
Barbara Rose, Dale Chihuly’s Paradise Regained
Blue Fiori Sun ©2014 Bo Mackison
A highly unlikely blue color, but still, the art looked as if it truly belonged there, as if it had grown organically from the desert ground. I love the natural desert, solitary walks in the wilderness desert, but Chihuly offers a unique, mind-stretching experience in a desert based garden.
More Chihuly: The Night Show
Chihuly Cattails in the Desert Garden © 2104 Bo Mackison
I never met a color I didn’t like. ~ Dale Chihuly
This time focusing on these stunning red and orange cattails – swirling, curving, shimmering in the sunlight. The individual pieces are set amongst the succulents and desert trees .
Curving Cattails © 2104 Bo Mackison
[I want the glass] “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.” ~ Dale Chihuly
Red Cattails, Blue Agave
As an artist, Chihuly has always been a scavenger of images and ideas. He’s known for translating forms and patterns from nature and other media into glass: the designs of Native American blankets, the undulating shapes of sea creatures, the orbs of Japanese glass floats. ~ Sheila Farr, Seattle Times
The blue-green plants provide a stunning background for the brightly colored, complementary glass art. The color play is striking, and as the sun lowers in the sky, and first twilight, and finally dark appear, the gardens and art take on new expressions.
Chihuly Close Up © 2104 Bo Mackison
Though Chihuly no longer blows his own glass — he suffered a vision loss in an accident, and then a subsequent shoulder injury in the 1970s — he closely supervises his team of nearly 100 glass blowers. When one looks at the enormity of the show, it is understandable that one man could not produce all the blown glass pieces, though it is evident that Chihuly’s artistic vision is the cohesion in the show.
The exhibit is stunning placed amidst the desert habitations. It is a place I will visit repeatedly — the show is open daily through mid-May — and I’m sure to see a different perspective with every visit.
More Chihuly: Blue Fiori Sun
