Reflections of Monet
Will Hooker (left) directs a student in placing a globe in the pond sculpture at the NCMA.
Photo by Becky Kirkland
In the weeks before the exhibition "Monet in Normandy" had its Oct. 15 opening at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students were at work creating an outdoor installation inspired by the work of French impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926).
Will Hooker, CALS horticultural science professor of landscape design, led his students' museum-park installation of the pond sculpture called "Reflections from the Ru," which accompanied the run of the Monet exhibition till Jan. 14, 2007.
Created through use of multicolored, hand-blown, reflective glass globes set to float among bamboo poles placed standing in the pond, the sculpture was inspired by Monet's art. Many of Monet's works, such as his famous 1889 "Water Lily Pond," depict scenes of his Giverny, Normandy, home and his garden pond, which was fed by the flow from the Ru, a tributary of the Seine River.
"Basically this piece is about color on a pond to reflect Monet's Water Lilies paintings and to bring attention to his work to coincide with opening of the exhibit," said Hooker. "While honoring the genius of Monet, this installation can in no way replicate the lushness of the tributary of the Seine where he built his famous garden."
Still the NCSU students' energy and enthusiastic artistry produced a fittingly commemorative sculpture with bamboo poles "meant to pay homage to the local ecology, implying reeds around the edge of the pond," Hooker said. "Honoring the impressionist master's passion for color, the multi-colored gazing balls are scattered amongst the 'reeds,' with the whole creating an ever changing play of light, color, reflections and unanticipated surprises."
The 150 globes were made by the J.T. Smith & Son Silver Globe Manufacturing Co. in Marietta, Ohio. "I have used gazing balls in other sculptures for years. They are the perfect form, a spherical globe, yet, being made of glass, incredibly fragile," Hooker said. "The contrast and the fragility, which is itself a comment on life, make these a perfect item [through which] to contemplate our lives."
- Terri Leith
Will Hooker, CALS horticultural science professor of landscape design, led his students' museum-park installation of the pond sculpture called "Reflections from the Ru," which accompanied the run of the Monet exhibition till Jan. 14, 2007.
Created through use of multicolored, hand-blown, reflective glass globes set to float among bamboo poles placed standing in the pond, the sculpture was inspired by Monet's art. Many of Monet's works, such as his famous 1889 "Water Lily Pond," depict scenes of his Giverny, Normandy, home and his garden pond, which was fed by the flow from the Ru, a tributary of the Seine River.
"Basically this piece is about color on a pond to reflect Monet's Water Lilies paintings and to bring attention to his work to coincide with opening of the exhibit," said Hooker. "While honoring the genius of Monet, this installation can in no way replicate the lushness of the tributary of the Seine where he built his famous garden."
The reflections of the students working on the project in one of the 150 handblown glass spheres.
Photo by Becky Kirkland
Photo by Becky Kirkland
The 150 globes were made by the J.T. Smith & Son Silver Globe Manufacturing Co. in Marietta, Ohio. "I have used gazing balls in other sculptures for years. They are the perfect form, a spherical globe, yet, being made of glass, incredibly fragile," Hooker said. "The contrast and the fragility, which is itself a comment on life, make these a perfect item [through which] to contemplate our lives."
- Terri Leith