nature – Page 80 – enclos*ure

Life in gardens: Mr. Hesse

March 3, 2016April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

“Mr. Hesse, Bot.[anic] Gardens,” Washington, D.C., 1928 or 29, by National Photo Company, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Years later, did he go back and say, “I remember it as so much bigger. . . “?

The little boy was almost certainly the son of George Wesley Hess, who was Superintendent and then Director of the U.S. Botanic Garden from 1913 to 1934. There are more photos of the family and the Garden here.

I bless thee, Lord, because I GROW
Among thy trees, which in a ROW
To thee both fruit and order OW.

— George Herbert, from “Paradise”

The winter garden: Greene County

February 27, 2016April 11, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ure2 Comments

“Plants in window of farm home. Greene County, Iowa,” 1940, by John Vachon, via Library of Congress Photographs Division.

The pleasure of working outside is only matched by the pleasure of dreaming inside.

— Tyler Whittle

The Sunday porch: Naples, Florida

February 14, 2016January 10, 2016 Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

Porch at the Hole in the Wall Golf Club, Naples, Florida, February 16, 1960, by Gottsho-Schleisner, Inc., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The Sunday porch: Frankfurt

January 31, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure4 Comments

“Big Trees” (Pohon Besar) by Joko Avianto of Indonesia, on the facade of the Frankfurter Kunstverein (Frankfurt Art Club), Frankfurt, Germany.

The sculpture was created in 2015 for the exhibition Roots: Indonesian Contemporary Art at the Kunstverein.

[“Big Trees”] consists of 1525 woven stalks of bamboo imported from plantations in West Java. Bamboo is historically associated with traditional craft. . . . [Avianto] borrows and reinterprets traditional Sundanese (West Java) weaving techniques to construct his exaggerated sculptural forms. His innovative process of breaking the long compact fibres of the columns between each node of the bamboo stalk makes it pliable while maintaining its strength. This allows for the bamboo to be manipulated, bent and woven into soft curvilinear lines. An underlying concern for Avianto is the changing socio-economic and cultural values associated with bamboo cultivation. This includes the decline of village owned and cultivated bamboo forests in West Java due to a new wave of global industrialisation, and the aggressive monoculture of the palm oil industry.

— from the sculpture’s label at the Kunstverein

You can watch a 4 1/2 minute video of its construction here.

detail3, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 2016, enclos*uree

And from a hill,
The earth is masses
Of cane, bamboo,
And other grasses.

— Donald Hall, from “Bamboo“

The palace garden, Venice

January 30, 2016July 19, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure2 Comments

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A variation on the same theme. . . in Venice, at Christmas, our hotel also had an unusually large garden.

The Boscolo Venezia was built in the 16th century as a family palace. It is located in the Sestiere Cannaregio, between the Fondamenta de la Madonna dell’Orto and the lagoon, facing the island of Murano.

It claims to be the only hotel in Venice with a garden over 2,000 square meters.

Long and fairly narrow with winding paths of light grey pea gravel, the garden is heavily planted in trees and large, dark-leaved shrubs (and variegated Aucuba japonica). Berms down the sides and crossing the middle increase the sense of privacy, restrict a sense of the whole, and make the garden seem larger.

Click on any thumbnail in the gallery below to scroll through larger images.