Thursday, March 17, 2016

Desert Botanical Garden: Sonoran Light

 
Garden entrance: Chihuly structures at dusk
 
We just got back from Tempe, AZ, where we spent three days immersed in baseball spring training. As usual, we had a good time attending games and eating the local cuisine. (Click here for past spring training trips.) But, for me, this year's highlight was seeing "Sonoran Light," an evening art installation at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. The artist, Bruce Munro, uses common recycled items and fiber-optic lights to create luminescent sculptures that change colors and engage the viewer. The most spectacular piece, called "Field of Light," features some 30,000 spheres (recycled Christmas ornaments?) illuminating the Garden Butte hillside, flowing, like lava, into the Sonoran Desert Nature Loop Trail. In the dark, "Field of Light," in particular, seemed to go on for miles and was absolutely breath-taking.

Although "Field of Light" was impossible to capture with our cameras, we did manage to take some good photos of the other exhibits (click on images to enlarge):

"Water Towers," made with recycled water bottles

 
"Water Towers" detail 

 
Tim standing in front of a geodesic dome made of
water bottles

 
Dome detail

 
Enormous "Chindi" mobile with moon (left)

 
"Eden Bloom" with cactus in the background

 
A second "Eden Bloom"

 
A tiny portion of "Field of Light"

We also, of course, got to experience the garden's less flashy residents at night, enhancing the desert's dark mystery.

 
Boojum tree, a Garden favorite

 
Majestic saguaro

For more information about "Sonoran Light" and/or the Botanical Garden, please watch:

 

2 comments:

Suzanne said...

I see the Sonoran Light display is only on until May 8th so we won't be able to visit. Thanks for sharing. I will make sure we at least visit the garden the next time we are in Phoenix.

Cyn said...

I love the garden even without the art, so well worth a visit.