Enter a “Cloud Forest” at the Botanical Garden

Posted in Exhibitions, Kiku on October 2 2008, by Plant Talk

Karen Daubmann is Director of Exhibitions and Seasonal Displays.

Last year, as one of my first projects as an employee of the Garden, I had the pleasure of working with artist Tetsunori Kawana as he and a crew of staff and volunteers (see photo below) assembled a bamboo sculpture for Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum. The exhibition focuses on luscious displays of chrysanthemums but uses bamboo, maples, and other Japanese plants to showcase how important plants are to the Japanese, especially in autumn.

The towering sculpture provided a magnificent accent to last year’s Kiku display in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory Courtyards. If you saw the sculpture, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that it was very cool and like nothing you’d seen before. Though it was untitled, I’d compare it to a bamboo volcano, a wide base narrowing at the top but giving way to an explosion of bamboo strands that danced through the air, rugged and powerful but graceful at the same time.

This year, Kawana-san is back with a bigger and even cooler project. He has designed what he calls a “cloud forest,” which visitors can walk through to experience it from within, immersing themselves in his work.
On Monday, 350 pieces of 30-foot timber bamboo (Phyllostachys bambusoides) arrived here from Georgia. As the truck was unloaded, the excitement for the project began to build. The bamboo will be used in many ways—cut into sections to form triangles of support, split into segments and woven to create “clouds,” and used full length to create the “forest.”

Unless you’re a volunteer working on this project, you’ll have to wait until the show opens for the sculpture’s unveiling. However, if you’re willing to spend some time sawing, splitting, and wiring bamboo together and you are available October 2–11, please contact the volunteer office at volunteer@nybg.org or 718-817-8564.

Believe me, it is a treat to work alongside Tetsunori Kawana.