NYBG Orchid Show Feb 28-April 12
When the NY Botanical Garden decided on a "Brazilian Modern" theme for the 7th annual Orchid Show, there was only one designer to call.
Not only is landscape architect Raymond Jungles a master of modernity, he is also steeped in contemporary Brazilian design. He studied and worked with the late architect, designer and artist Roberto Burle Marx, celebrated as one of the 20th century's foremost modern landscape architects. As Jungles put it in an interview with Garden Design Online, "To me, Brazilian modern is Burle Marx."
As you walk into the NYBG show, you'll encounter this towering Burle Marx mosaic, circa 1991 (being installed in the show, left). The work is one of many owned by Jungles, and it was last displayed some years ago at the Sala Mendoza Gallery in Caracas, Venezuela. It's headed for an eventual home at the Naples Botanical Garden in Naples, Florida.
Jungles said the design for the orchid show includes "strong, bold gestures," akin to something that Burle Marx might have done. He explained that Burle Marx often did shows for Carnival and theater settings. "He was a master of the theatrical," said Jungles, and the orchid show "is my interpretation of what he might have done in a similar situation."
From the entrance gallery, you pass through a long corridor filled with walls of living orchids, epiphytic orchid sculptures, and signature tropical plants native to Brazil, including bromeliads, staghorn ferns, philodendrons, and many palms. Along the way, you'll encounter thousands of orchids, including Cymbidium (Asian corsage), Phalaenopsis (moth), Oncidium (dancing lady) and many other species.
Finally you enter another gallery at the opposite end of the corridor, with explosions of orchids above and below. Orchid "chandeliers" (left) are suspended above a 20 x 20' pool, where they are reflected on the water's surface, giving you "a double whammy of color," said Jungles.
A garden designed by Raymond Jungles is one that contains a lot of strength without a lot of busy elements. "I'm not happy," he says, "until I sense there's going to be a peaceful quality, even though it may be a bold space."
When Jungles designed the orchid show, he was well aware that the glass houses would be filled with people. "I tried to build nooks and crannies," he said, "where people can tuck out of the turbulence into these eddies, look around and enjoy the space, enjoy the sight lines that connect one place to another, and experience a scene that ... gives the entire space a sense of cohesion."
If this design does one thing, it produces a sense of excitement; only a rare few could make it produce a feeling of harmony as well.
Jungles will be at orchid show on Saturday, February 28,and will give a lecture at 1PM in the Arthur & Janet Ross lecture hall, where he'll also sign copies of his new book,
The Colors of Nature: Subtropical Gardens by Raymond Jungles (Monacelli Press, 2008)
(images: NY Botanical Garden - click on images for larger view)
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