Chihuly At Kew

By Rob Last edited 235 months ago

Last Updated 26 May 2005

Chihuly At Kew
chihuly1.jpg

We're not exactly big on gardening here at Londonist. Yes, we know it's the Chelsea Flower Show thhs week, but we just haven't reached that age yet where we can get excited about floral arrangements and shrubbery and what kind of manure is 'in' this season.

But, having said all that, how cool is the Gardens of Glass exhibition at Kew Gardens?

All the pieces of hand-blown glass on display are by American Dale Chihuly (who has an eyepatch and is therefore immediately a hero) and were all specifically designed to blend in with the flowerbeds and architecture of the park. The result being that the whole place looks like some incredible psychedelic Martian landscape.

Take, for example, The Sun at the north end of the Princess of Wales Conservatory (that's it in the picture). Now consider the fact that it's more than 4 metres high by 4 metres wide and is made from 1,000 pieces of glass! You can see a Quicktime video of it being installed here and it's mindblowing.

And we haven't even got to the boats filled with bonkers glass sculptures yet. It's like something out of Willy Wonka's factory only without the Oompa Loompas.

The exhibition opens on Saturday and runs until 15 January next year. We wouldn't advise going after you've been to the pub - we're guessing Kew will make you pay for any breakages.