After visiting a garden last weekend with an overabundance of sculpture, one which we all agreed had gone beyond artful to kitsch, I'm concerned I may be doing the same with this object.
But it does have enormous virtue. Apart from giving a fine point to the garden's small perspective, its brightness catches the eye and keeps the eye within the garden. It looks down at the ground plane and the plantings, making you do the same. So the visual focus is directed downward and the outside view of houses across the way becomes less distracting. It really works quite well. It also reflects in the pool, and its brightness highlights the glimmering surface of the water.
Yet another contribution--when I look out from the house, it looks back, creating a dynamic visual exchange that adds visual and emotional depth to the garden.
But what is the kitsch factor?
(Ignore the planting at the back. It's become a plant holding area. I want to put in green Hakonechloa macra in the spring.)
The garden is very beautiful. Garden does not look new, looks like autochton :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking face Bacchus. Where is it? I do not see anything. I only see the flowers and shrubs.I do not see Bacchus, I do not see kitsch.
It's white, at the top of the photo, in the center. I'm happy you say the garden doesn't look new. It certainly is new--only about four months old. Thanks for visiting.
DeleteI know that Bacchus is the middle of the wall :-) But the sculpture is not important. Are important plants and water.
DeleteYou are asking a question, so here is my answer. The garden looks quite beautiful except the Bacchus sculpture looks completely out of place. From your photo, the scale of the sculpture does not fit the garden. It also takes away from the aesthetic calmness of the planting. It's placement is directly in line with what I believe is a Japanese maple. It looks like a white dot plunked on a dark fence. Maybe a few other photos might give a better perspective of what you believe it contributes to the garden space.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lorraine. Your advice is exactly what I'm looking for. I think the photo changes the perception of scale, and it does look like a white dot in the photo. In reality, the scale is different and you can see a lot of detail in the ceramic piece. But I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you. And I want to think about your comment that it takes away from the aesthetic calmness of the planting. I'm also concerned that it's yet another object that adds to the clutter in a very small garden. For a similar reason, I think the back planting needs to be greatly simplified.
DeleteI am loving the proportions of your garden --- border plants, pea gravel, low boulders, boxwoods and pool all form a serene balance. I really like it, even knowing that the Japanese maple has to grow some and fill the wall space. But I do think Bacchus is too small. I like your thought process about providing focus and directing the gaze. But it's just too small and very white compared to the quiet tones around. I might like it better off center to the right where it can be a pop by itself, and not be part of a line of view that is so quiet and restful. Just a thought. Love the whole garden anyway!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Laurrie. I'm persuaded by the mass of comments, which agree with you about the scale of the piece (and the "alien" subject matter, the color, and the wavy edged planter). I have things to think about, but the Bacchus face, I think, will soon return to its place inside the house.
DeleteWow! Look how much the garden has grown since I last saw it! That's exciting to see. I was worried about you when I heard of the Brooklyn tornado--since I don't know the neighborhoods, I had no idea how close (or far) it was from you. I glad that it appears to have missed you.
ReplyDeleteAbout Baccus, I think I'd opt for something larger, darker, and more rectilinear. Or, possibly consider giving him more presence by framing him...
--Emily
Emily, I was actually in NJ when the tonado reached Brooklyn, but it was a far away part of Brooklyn. Bacchus goes away. As does the wavy edged planter, when I find something to replace it, or perhaps take an entirely different design approach.
Deletefrom your words, Bacchus is right and works for you in the RL garden. For me what is disconcerting is the rippled edge of the shell saucer below Bacchus - everything else hums a quiet Oriental/Zen tune. I guess you plan to cover that edge with plants? And yes, simpler quieter darker plants at the back?
ReplyDelete(Yes,-butting in - the rippled edge - that's just what I thought)
DeleteBut the white is very white and demanding attention. Not easy to give totally good answer from photos, James.
Anne, yes, I've seen the scale it totally misrepresented in the photo. But I think the point of nevertheless valid. And the rippled edge will go too. I used it because I had it; it was free. It's also very heavy concrete and hard to move through the house. I'll be looking for an alternative, either a change in object, or a change in design.
DeleteDiana, point made yet again. Rarely do I get such almost unanimous agreement of a garden feature. Everyone seems put off by that rippled edge. It's interesting how one attaches to ideas and loses clarity of vision. An important lesson here.
DeleteThis comment is from Calvin. I tried to publish it on my mobile phone, and accidentally pressed "Delete." So I'm posting it for Calvin. Unfortunately, I can't retrieve Calvin's link.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...I don't think it is kitschy, nor out of place...just not in the right place. As you look across the reflecting pool, the line of the pool is vertical in a two dimensional (photo or through a window) view. So your eye is drawn to the vertical plane, to the planter spilling over the low wall and then to Bacchus (which further draws the eye by being light on a darker background. On my third look at the photo, all I could see was Bacchus. I think perhaps Bacchus and also the dish/planter on the sides or even at the corners at the back...that would make it asymmetrical, and as the eye is drawn to the end of the view, then the viewer can 'search' for the next point of interest.
I think I have mentioned before on this view how much I like how the elements replace the standard elements of a Japanese Dry Garden with completely different materials but analogous forms. Hmmm...what about a taller element, an Ilex crenata 'sky pencil,' say, in between the viewer and the view: in the center of the 'triangle' created by the leftmost ends of the two recumbent stones and the staked plant. This could lend some forced diminished perspective to the scene and make it appear as though the end of the pool was farther away. No matter what direction you go from here, you have crafted an excellent scene.
Calvin, I appreciate your advice. I find it a little hard to follow (to bad you can't post a diagram). I'm thinking I already have probably too much "stuff" in this little garden, so I'm inclined to subtract rather than add. I get the idea of forces perspective, and I have thought of planting something at the edge toward the viewed near the "staked plant" which is actually one of four symmetrical, off-center Gleditsia triacanthos. I've toyed with the idea of a Nandina and grass, perhaps, or Acanthus, possibly a shrub as you suggest. But my fear is that I will simply have too much going on in the garden. The space visible in the photo above is only about 22 feet deep and 20 feet wide, so it's smaller than it looks.
DeleteI like it...I think you have a LONG way to go before you reach kitsch territory ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Scott. I'm kitsch wary, though most commentors seem to be more concerned with other issues.
DeleteI think the pool itself directs visual focus downward and away fron the buildings around.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the subject bacchuss, rather than a visage that leaves you pondering the kitsch factor ?
You're probably right, Rob. The idea of using Bacchus is rather trite, and must have been done with variations many thousands of times before. Bacchus is a rather alien image tor Brooklyn.
DeleteYou don't do Bacchanalian in Brooklyn ? Pity.
DeleteJames, I can't believe how quickly this has happened - this whole garden - nor how nimbly it's been executed. Your back fence is sort of asking for a brooch, for something to take the eye away from the flatness, so I'd say you've made the perfect choice.
ReplyDeleteIt's all so beautiful, and so naturalistic, so easy to take in. I like the irregularities. Kitsch? No, not one bit.
Faisal, I may consider something along the line of Joseph Cornell or Louise Nevelson, both of whose work I admire. And they were both New Yorkers. Conceptually, this may be a good route to travel.
DeleteI think it good. And I like your initial explanation about drawing the eye and drawing it down. Works well for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm working in a vast landscape, not a small one. But its the same discussion. Now the framework is there what are the points? The single things to guide the eye ? And what are the items themselves to be.
What did strike me most in the photo however was the ripple from a point in the pond. Always dynamic rather than still Very beautiful, balanced and very eye catching - in a good way.
I've had such strong reactions for several commentors that I feel I have to sit quietly and wait a while. Perhaps look at other small gardens, which are hard to find except in photos. And as Anne Wareham points out it's really very hard to give advice on the basis of one photo. As an example, I've been shocked that the perceived scale of the garden and the mask are so different in the photo from what I see in reality. So I'll give my attention to practical tasks that need to be finished, and take up aesthetics after a time out.
DeleteIt takes more than one mask to make any garden kitchy.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Allan. At least I haven't struck out on that base.
DeleteHello James,
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm fond of eccentricities in a garden, I do agree with others that the shell and the Bacchus detract from the elegant simplicity of your city garden. Which is coming along nicely, the miscanthus is lovely, by the way. Since you invite comments, I do think that three tall, and sculptural shrubs, that would provide a strong line above the fence level, might be tempting. Rather like the viburnum in Tom Stuart Smith's Chelsea garden of 2006. Except that you might use sumac? For some reason, I feel you need that kind of linear repetition to end such a geometrically interesting space.
http://www.tomstuartsmith.co.uk/projects/show-gardens/chelsea-2006/ (note the penultimate photograph)
Ross, your suggestion adds fuel to the fire. I do think the back of this garden is in for a total redo. But probably not before next spring. The Tom Stuart-Smith use of viburnums with naked legs at Chelsea is one I've long admired, so I take your suggestion to heart. This would work only if I wipe the slate clean (at the back), which I realize I need to do anyway. I'm not particularly pleased with the yew hedge (to be) or the junky back planting (which is now mostly a holding area until I can move some of the plants to the country). Sumac I would love for the look and fall color, but it runs wildly and would fill the garden in a few years. Perhaps the same viburnums TSS used? Or something with beautiful bark, in a light color that would contrast with the dark fence (Stewartia, Crepe myrtle?), that can be kept cut to two or three sinuous, narrow trunks. All underplanted with green Hakonechloa macra.
ReplyDelete... or Seven Son Flower (Heptacodium miconioides).
DeleteThe heptacodium would be lovely with the hakonechloa.
DeleteI believe I have just written the first line of a poem.
p.s. I might play with taking out the three stones and seeing how the garden looks. Perhaps replacing them with a scattering of semperviviums, perhaps of different varieties, at the edge of your pool, to continue your play with microscopy.
Contemplating your hortus conclusus is a comfort at the moment since we are being flooded YET AGAIN. Fifty recently planted salix gracilistylus swept away. I can scarcely believe it.
Maybe I'll take that line and mount it on a sign across the back of the garden and be done with it.
DeleteYour thought of the sedums is an intriguing one. This garden should be contemplative, more to look at than be in, like many Japanese gardens. It's no Ryoan-ji, but something like that. So paring back to simple essentials is called for, perhaps. (The Brooklyn Botanic Garden had a beautiful replica back in the 1970s. I remember it well. You had to take off your shoes and wear paper slippers, then sit on a wooden platform to contemplate the garden.) I like the thought of playing with scale in this small space.
The gods seem to resist all your attempts to grow willows on that creek bank. Will this become a epic struggle, man against mountain torrent?
From this photo, I think you've now got 4 focal points in this garden - foreground rocks, bubbling pond, plant-filled shell and Bacchus. That's not necessarily a problem but you've lined them all up along one axis, which is too much and they all compete. I'd move the shell to the back right-hand corner and set it on an angle, part hidden among those gorgeous grasses. Bacchus is OK in himself (although as much I love the god of wine and revelry, he does seem a little at odds with the overall Zen aesthetic) but he needs to be an integral part of the garden, surrounded by creeping vines (like the one on the left-hand wall?), looking down out of a tree, or facing up at you out of the water, rather than a pale, disconnected spot on a dark wall.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments, Catherine. I think I agree with most of what you say, particularly your indirect reference to too much going on and conflict with the "Zen aesthetic," and I'm moving toward simplifying, taking away. With another garden in the country occupying my attention (and pocketbook) now, things will probably remain as they are until spring. Unless I get a crazy urge to make some changes sooner. Knowing myself, I can't entirely discount that possibility. As you suggest, Bacchus may perhaps return to an out-of-the-way position once the vines have covered some of the walls.
DeleteJames. It's a truly great garden. Don't be influenced by us armchair commentators bent over our keyboards. We have a view and it's fun. But don't take too much notice. Be confident and happy.
DeleteKerry, I can't complain. I asked for it. I do agree something needs to be done. I'm wholly displeased with the back of the garden, Bacchus or no Bacchus. Thanks for the vote of confidence.
Delete