Natural Discourse: Artists, Architects, Scientists and Poets in the Garden

Exhibit - Multimedia | July 14, 2012 – January 20, 2013 every day with exceptions | 9 a.m.-5 p.m. |  Botanical Garden

Sponsor: Botanical Garden

'Natural Discourse: Artists, Architects, Scientists & Poets in the Garden' is a collaborative project between The UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley and a multi-disciplinary group of artists, writers, architects and researchers who have been invited to spend time in the Garden's extraordinary collection of plants, engage with the horticulturalists and develop new site specific work. The resulting works are provocative, innovative and varied.

Works on display include:
--delicate drawings of spider webs spun by spiders on psychotropic drugs
--a hand-crafted net “fogcatcher” in the Mather Redwood Grove
--a contemporary take on Thoreau’s cabin using repurposed glass tubes salvaged from the wreckage of the Solyndra Corporation
-- 'light paintings', mysterious and intimate photo portraits of some of the Garden’s spectacular collection displayed on billboards, walls and windows
--a sculptural installation with decommissioned redwood water tanks that frame a new way of seeing the Garden, its spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge and beyond
--for word lovers, new poetic plant signage
--a video installation using footage shot in the Garden with a heat-sensing camera revealing hidden aspects of plants in vibrant colors

Mary Anne Friel, Assistant Professor, Rhode Island School of Design, and Shirley Watts, award-winning Bay Area Landscape Designer, curated the exhibition which will open to the public July 14th with a day long event of artists in the Garden.

Participating artists are Mary Anne Friel, Todd Gilens, Matt Suib, Nadia Hironaka, Hazel White, Denise Newman, Deborah O'Grady, Ron Real, Viginia San Fratello, Gail Wight, Nami Yamamoto, Mitch Maher, Shirley Watts, Shane Myrbeck, Jane Flint and Andrew Kudless (installation coming this Fall 2012).

Exhibition is free with Garden admission.

Open to audience: All Audiences

Event Contact: garden@berkeley.edu, 510-643-2755

(No event on these dates: December 24, 25, 31, 2012; January 1, 2013)