Outdoor art at Glasnevin
Yesterday was a beautiful day so I headed north to the Botanic Garden at Glasvevin again. I was hoping to see some autumn colour but there is a temporary exhibition of sculpture in the garden. Called ‘Sculpture in Context’, it is Ireland’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibition, featuring new and established artists who had the chance to put their pieces in unusual places.
I have said before that I am not always sure about ‘art in the garden’ and I do think that it devalues the actual garden a bit. But it certainly seemed to be drawing in the crowds and some of the pieces were either beautiful, intriguing, thought-provoking or attractive. I won’t say much more because I am hardly an art critic; I will let you decide. Anyway, here are some of those that either caught my eye or that I liked.
‘Anne Boleyn l’ by Jason Ellis. A bit of humour here
‘Anne Boleyn ll’ by Jason Ellis. More humour
‘Leaving (Nature fills void)’ by Penelope Lacey.
‘Waltzing Goldfish’ by Susan Cuffe. This delicate, hanging piece was enhanced by the colour of the grasses
‘Bottle Brush’ by Clare Green. This showed careful observation of callistemon
‘Inner Sanctum ll’ by Breda Marron. A close up of the entrance. Make a wicker house and you can be sure the kids will flock to it.
‘Floral Subversion’ by Joe Nagle. I am sorry but this is not what I want to see in a border.
‘Fauna or Flora’ by Michelle Maher. The series of ceramic bowls did look good among the blue fescues
‘Health and Safety’ by Bob the builder. OK, only kidding – I think
‘Bog Sundew Tentacles’ by Gwyn Grace. This small piece outside the insectivorous house was intriguing but I couldn’t resist using an effect
‘Fabric-ation’ by Helen Walsh.
‘Monolith’ by Sunny Wieler’. I liked the general shape of this, especially the way it echoed the lines of the greenhouse
‘Celaeno’ by Richard Heffernan. Very curious and I liked the detail
‘Tree of Knowledge’ by Brian Byrne. For some bizarre reason I think this was my favourite
The Biking Gardener 
This is freaky sculpture, particularly the last one.
LOL. Yes, that one is a bit odd but it appealed to the more macabre side of my personality I think!
Love that Brian Byrne one.
Yes, me too
Its very personal isn’t it? I can’t say I liked any of these sculptures except ‘Celaeno’. ‘Floral Subversion’ gives me the heebie jeebies. But I do think gardens are a wonderful place to exhibit art. Looks like you had lovely weather too.
Yes a garden is a wonderful place to exhibit art and people were certainly enjoying it. I think that what annoyed me (well the purist in me) is that people were following the trail and paying no attention to the plants! Be assured that I will post about some plants tomorrow in case I sound like a hypocrite!
A very interesting collection… I can live with subtle art and I as a textile person I could live with the dresses but not in the garden !!
Nice to see and know it’s only temporary… 🙂
I was there also last week. I think I must have missed out a whole section as I missed some you featured. I’m sorry that you didn’t photograph the whole willow house, it was lovely. I also particularly liked the huge willow figure in the grass garden as it echoed the large grasses it was amongst. I particularly love the grass garden though I wish the grasses were more reliably labelled.
It was difficult to see them all and I didnt get a guide so i am sure I missed loads. But I will be doing some more posts of the garden this week including some grasses – they were looking lovely. But I agree about the labelling and I did have to rummage around looking for some labels! But I will have a post that includes the big willow figure. Watch this space! 🙂