Chicago Park District

Summer 2008

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Art In The Garden

June 15 - October 31, 2004

What happens when artists are given free rein to create artistic public green spaces?

Art in the Garden answers that question in 24 Chicago Park District gardens designed by artists.

It won't be the first time the Park District has explored the question. Over the past three years, Chicago Park District horticulturists and designers have pushed the limits of what Chicagoans expect to find in public gardens. At the end of the growing season of 2001, we began by painting a bed of plants, located at the North Avenue exit from Lake Shore Drive. Fading plants were coated in non-toxic paints the color of raspberries, melons, canaries and blue sky. Motorists noticed, registering surprise and approval.

Since then we have painted trees blue, snaked orange tubes through a garden, made mounds of pansies at the intersection of Michigan and Congress Parkway, and decorated a pink-flowered garden with large painted tubes in various shades of pink.

Over the years, these gardens sparked curiosity. Each time we bring art props into the gardens, the Park District switchboard lights up. Some people are confused, while others are elated, even inspired. (Blue trees have since been spotted in private gardens on the West Side of Chicago.) The intent of the "arty" objects has been to get people out of their cars and take a different route to experience the unusual gardens. In short, we want to make gardens destinations rather than merely backdrops, and judging from the responses so far, we have been successful.

Art in the Garden takes that destination idea to a new level. Artists not only insert objects into green spaces, they use living plants as their paint and clay. The gardens will change as the plants grow, so that each garden visit will be a different, new experience.

The art gardens are organized around the city's boulevard system, in parks where annual gardens currently exist.

The photos capture some of the artistic splendor of the artists' original proposals, along with their statements expressing what the gardens mean to them.

We have been encouraged by Mayor Richard M. Daley to "think outside the box," and we believe these artistic gardens will enhance visitors' enjoyment of the city's parks. And who knows, perhaps art gardens will begin sprouting in backyards throughout Chicago in 2005.

To learn more about these gardens, visit The Art of Art in the Garden: an extensive display of the artists' proposal drawings and models of this summer's art gardens.

WHERE: Chicago Tourism Center, 72 E. Randolph Street
WHEN: Through September 30
HOURS: Mon - Sat 10 AM - 6 PM, Sunday 11am - 4 PM, closed holidays
For more information call (312) 744-2400.

A note about process:
Art in the Garden is an invitational. An artists selection committee composed of representatives of Chicago's art community was convened by the Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the Chicago Park District to oversee the task of soliciting and judging proposals. Artists were invited to submit concepts of their vision of a work of living art in the form of a garden. Once designs were selected, locations in parks along the historic boulevard system were assigned. After a site was designated, each artist returned to the drawing board and modified the design, translating it from the theoretical to the practical. That process was done in conversation with horticulturists and the landscape contractors who turned the final drawings into the blueprints used to calculate plant quantities and garden designs throughout the fall.

Art in the Garden is a partnership between the Chicago Park District and the Public Art Program of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.

Grant Park

Snaked Gourd Chamber Maze by Nicole Beck, Chicago IL at Grant Park - Southeast Corner of Michigan Avenue & Balbo Drive (700 S. Michigan Avenue) This looped garden maze was inspired by Celtic knot designs. The center hub is a secluded arbor walk, a trellis chamber covered in gourd and scarlet runner bean vines. The surrounding path reveals a wondrous garden that showcases such exotic plants as castor bean, amaranth, nicotiana, cleome, cardoon, coleus, and datura...64 plant varieties provide fertile treasure within our bustling cityscape. I have completed public sculpture commissions in Chicago and exhibited nationwide. I have a holistic approach to art and science. Minimal, well-crafted forms pose as quirky, poetic archetypes for the flow and balance and energy of life systems.

Second Nature by Roberley Bell, Batavia NY at Grant Park - North of Congress Parkway & West of Columbus Drive My project, Second Nature, reflects my containing interest in the garden and the built American landscape as an extension of the domestic realm. The urban oasis provided by the city park, like the garden, is an extension of our domestic space and as such is contained and controlled in similar ways. Second Nature incorporates live text growing through artificial turf and accompanied by the classic icon of domestic shelter, a house. The house formed of chain link affords a view in and through, though cannot be physically penetrated, suggesting our attempt to mediate between the inside and outside worlds. The text 'Second Nature is Home' refers to the Roman writer on landscape and gardens, Cicero. His term Alteram Naturam, refers to a landscape of elements that man has introduced to make nature habitable. The concept of second nature implies a first nature, one before man's intervention and control, a physical world that was not "home". This garden is sponsored by the Fairmont Hotel.

Untitled by Raye Bemis, Chicago IL at Grant Park - North of Congress Parkway & West of Columbus Drive Evenly spaced alternating rows of low-lying plants and shattered car window glass comprise this installation. The glass and plants are symmetrically organized into a flat undulating wave pattern. This installation incorporates the following concerns: Using "inappropriate" materials in large scale installations that blur the boundaries between sculpture and architecture. Using materials that appeal to the physical senses. Incorporating space and time into the work via a scale that requires walking around/through the installation in order to experience it. Using large scale structures with much smaller more intimate structures, objects, etc. This installation's materials of shattered glass and cultivated decorative plantings invoke aspects of the unruly urban environment and the conflicting idealized organization of nature within it.

Geometries by Jerry Bleem, Cicero IL at Grant Park - Just south of Jackson Drive on East Side of Michigan Avenue Geometries relies upon simple ideas of repetition, color and form. The bedding plants are arranged in large blocks and grouped to create only four heights. From this textural, patterned surface, simple geometric forms arise. Over the course of the summer, these will be covered with vines. As the plants grow lush and the supports are hidden, the growing season and this ephemeral garden will end. I want to create a garden that can be enjoyed as a whole and in its parts; a garden that will be worth experiencing at any one moment and throughout its growing cycle.

Wild Grasses and Wildflowers by Maren Hassinger, Baltimore MD at Grant Park - South of Congress Parkway & West of Columbus Drive What I'm trying to do in this piece is to align nature with the man-made. Lengths of wire rope will be interspersed with plantings. The character of wire rope will make it appear to be blowing in the wind, giving it the animation of actual vegetation. I suppose you might ask, "Why would I want to compare nature and wire, bringing them together as one?" The only answer I have is that they exist together in the garden plot as they exist outsides of it. There is no nature without human presence. This blending I'm doing is an effort to deal with my feelings of loss as the wild vanishes. My reverence for nature, my nostalgia even, as well as my position in nature is suggested by this blending.

The Anjali Garden; a place to dream by Indira Freitas Johnson, Evanston IL at Grant Park - South of Congress Parkway & West of Columbus Drive Feet, a symbol of spiritual progression and stability are the entryway into this contemplative garden guiding us on a path to the opposite corner. Here, the Anjali sculpture uses the universal symbols of a circle and square with the circle symbolizing wholeness and unity and the square symbolizing stability and order. Breathe, Listen, Imagine, Dream, are carved into the sculpture offering a reflective pause, while the surrounding lotus petals reinforce the concept of tranquility. Water is suggested metaphorically with gently waving burgundy fountain grass at the center and diagonal waves of color descending in height from the silvery licorice vine to the vibrant 'Purple Robe' Nierenbergia.

Daphne Garden by Dessa Kirk, Chicago IL at Grant Park - Northeast corner of Roosevelt Road & Michigan Avenue (1201 S. Michigan Avenue) I was in Alaska, sitting in a cabin on my grandfather's goldmine when I thought of the concept for this last body of work. I was making a daisy out of a Johnson and Johnson band-aid can that I had cut apart. It occurred to me that I could do the same thing to a car. I then bought a Cadillac and took it apart bolt by bolt to create a lily. Now, years later the lilies have become mythical figures/self portraits. Daphne is a figure in Greek mythology that was turned into a Laurel Tree, by her father, to save her from being captured. In the garden there are three figures that are dancing as they are being transformed from a woman into a tree. During the summer months Daphne's skirt will also transform from a metal lattice into a blanket of vines that climb from the earth. This garden is sponsored by the Union League Club of Chicago.

Fallen Stars by D'Nell Larson, Los Angeles CA at Grant Park - North of Congress Parkway & West of Columbus Drive Love and the dynamics of romantic relationships are at the core of my work. I am interested in exploring the moments in love that are so blissful, time and space seem to disappear. I try to capture these moments in my installations through the spatial relationships between the viewer and the work, viewers with other viewers, and the site of the work itself. In this way, the work becomes experiential, recreating and questioning the experience of love conceptually and physically. The garden will be composed of flower covered fallen stars ranging between 3'-7' in diameter. Flowers such as Amaranthus, vines, and ivy will wrap around their arms. These pieces may also be read as fireworks shooting out from the ground. Surrounding the stars will be rings of brightly colored annuals, suggesting impact rings from landing or light and color radiating from the stars themselves.

Whitecaps and Whitefish by Madeleine Lord, Winchester MA at Grant Park - Southeast Corner of Michigan Avenue & Balbo Drive (700 S. Michigan Avenue) I spent my childhood summers in Sister Bay, Door County Wisconsin. Whitecaps were a part of most conversations when we looked out over the Bay, from the car or shore. My favorite errand was to Salty Joe's fish store where we bought whitefish for special dinners. I loved the sight of these amazing deep lake dwellers. This garden idea is the fantasy of my childhood, where whitefish would appear above the lake, swimming in plain sight among the whitecaps.

Changing Channels by Janet Morton, Madison WI at Grant Park - Southeast Corner of Michigan Avenue & Balbo Drive (700 S. Michigan Avenue) Statistics tell us the "average" American watches 5 hours of television daily. We come to know the world inside this square frame. We like things in boxes, contained and controlled wherever possible. Changing Channels uses the familiar frame of the television to create a thousand separate gardens, each programmed with it's own unique gardening show. The vast grid of TVs filled with flowers, echoes the urban grid, reclaims the discarded, and tames what could potentially grow wild. In these attention deficit times this garden challenges viewers to watch carefully for subtle shifts in color and the slow action of growth. The TV's used in this garden were gathered by the Chicago Department of Environment at their annual recycling event.

Equilibrium by Carolyn Ottmers, Chicago IL at Grant Park - Southeast corner of Michigan Avenue & Balbo Drive (700 S. Michigan Avenue) This garden explores the ways in which plants not only sustain the environment and us but can also help remediate problems we have created in the landscape by focusing on phytoremediation as its underlying theme. Phytoremediation is a potentially cost-effective "green" technology that takes advantage of natural plant processes to help clean up many kinds of pollution including metals, pesticides, explosives, and solvents. More than 350 species of plants are known to absorb contaminants from soil or ground water. Phytoremediation has been successfully tested in many locations, and is being used at several superfund sites. For example, sunflowers were used to treat contaminated surface water at the nuclear disaster site at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. The garden will include examples of plants that are known to hyper-accumulate metals as well as several large metallic botanical structures. Equilibrium in the landscape will be created as the plants grow taller and become integrated into the sculptural elements.

Me Quiere/No Me Quiere by Betsabee Romero, Colonia Alamos, Mexico at Grant Park - the median at Congress Parkway & the East side of Michigan Avenue I want to reinterpret traffic to offer a new way of thinking, to break the borders between urban categories. When you are in the car you are in an intimate "public" space and your thinking is free. You can imagine a garden or the gentle time of a picnic. For me the car is not just a functional vehicle, it is a symbol, a vehicle of culture and a vehicle for emotions. I have taken the car out of the traffic context, out of the familiar to remind the viewer that in a free state, connections to time, space and emotions hold no boundaries. This garden is sponsored by the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum.

Natural Reactor by Lucy E. Slivinski, Forest Park IL at Grant Park - South of Congress Parkway & West of Columbus Drive My work deals with the tension and potential energy between nature and industry. In Natural Reactor these two energies combine to create a potential for nature to take over the man-made elements of the garden. The garden's sculptural elements are inspired by power lines and the network of energy they carry. Gourd vines will grow up the steel poles, following the path of suspended chains. Poles and chains will be concealed when the vines reach the center rings. The vine network will float over red and fuchsia flowers, accentuating the lines through contrasting color. They will grow, flower, and produce gourds. The vines will die off and leave gourds hanging from chains. Over the course of the summer vines will envelope the sculpture, creating a new structure that appears natural but exists only because it is supported by the sculpture. When the vines die, leaving the gourds, the sculptural elements will again become prominent, though augmented with withered plant material, completing a cycle. Nature's creation will transcend man's efforts.

Washington Park

Wave by Barbara Cooper, Chicago IL at Washington Park - Median at Garfield Boulevard & Martin Luther King Drive (5501 S. Martin Luther King Drive) This boulevard median site is an island with movement flowing past it. The forms of the plantings derive from ebb and flow patterns in water. Rhythm and punctuation come from altering the height of the plants. The trellises in the garden evolved from wave forms. Early in the growing season, they will spiral up above the other plants. Later, they will become submerged under the plants. Movement will occur both within beds, as well as through the season, as the plants and their interaction changes.

Untitled - THIS EXHIBIT IS CURRENTLY BEING REINSTALLED by Marva Jolly, Chicago IL at Washington Park - Intersection of 57th Street & Cottage Grove Avenue (740 E. 56th Place) My work ranges from figurative "story pots" and reliefs to clay abstractions, which communicate and depict the energy of the Southern country landscape as well as the urban black experience. Designing this garden has brought me back to my childhood on a Mississippi family farm where flowers, grasses, bushes, trees, and vines grew in abundance. I designed the flowers and ceramic pieces for this garden as a way to recreate this magical experience in the Chicago community. I've created 50 ceramic garden bricks of varied sizes and colors to form an approximately eight foot flat sculpture. It will act as a spiritprotector of the garden. Each brick has its own design and at the same time is an element in the larger sculpture.

Washington Square Park

Wildman/Wildflower Garden by Donald Stahlke, Chicago IL at Washington Square Park - Clark Street & Delaware Place (901 N. Clark Street) The concept behind the Wildman/Wildflower Garden is to ask the question: why is there a need or desire for a wildperson to exist? The Wildman Garden leads to an exploration of everyone as a possible wildman as it propels its audience into the wildman position as they contemplate nature. Instead of the wildman being an entity upon itself, a possible descendent of cro-magnon man or a hermit who chooses to leave society, the new wildman, inspired by The Wildman Garden, will inspire its viewers to feel the power of nature.

Douglas Park

Conversation with Chicago by Jeanne Drevas, Sperryville VA at Douglas Park - Intersection of Sacramento Drive & 19th Street Nature in its myriad forms remains a constant if unacknowledged presence in daily life. In the city, nature is allowed to be touched as we walk across the monoculture called lawn. We view the lovely flowers, manicured hedges, and well tended trees. I want to take us out of our dulling certainties, to reconnect with the earth. By taking thousands of pine needles or an acre of wheat straw and interacting with made forms, my constructions loom unavoidably, reminding us that how hard we try to control and confine nature, it is there and it is us. We as well as the materials with which I work, are all destined to return to earth as mulch, to enrich what we have heedlessly taken. This garden is sponsored by the Jens Jensen Legacy Project

Plumed Serpents by Erin McNamara, Chicago IL at Douglas Park - Northwest Corner of Ogden Avenue & Sacramento Drive (1601 S. Sacramento Drive) A visit to Douglas Park's formal garden area inspired the idea for Plumed Serpents. Standing at the eastern end of the flowerbeds gazing toward Flower Hall, I envisioned the structure as a Mayan temple, with the lawn and flanking beds being the grand entrance. I remembered a Chichen Itza temple with the image of Quetzacoatl, the Feathered Serpent, carved into the stone railings. The long shape of the flowerbeds suggested the serpent forms and the open space would allow the viewer to see a planted design. The illusion was complete with the meadow to the south, used as soccer fields, becoming a modern day Ball Court.

Untitled by Derek Webster, Chicago IL at Douglas Park - Southeast corner of Ogden Avenue & Sacramento Drive (1601 S. Sacramento Drive) I grew up gardening at a young age, and always dreamed of beautiful art creations and flowers. I started making different creations like wooden statues, putting these and bottles around my flowers on a daily basis. I decided to show my artwork to others by placing some of it outside around my yard. People complimented my wife on the flowers and the artwork and I would just laugh and say this is my artwork. I love seeing other people smile at my creations because it's a different critique of art and flowers put together. Don Baum visited and asked who did the creations in the yard? I replied that it was me and I showed him more of my artwork. He stated that I'm an artist and have some wonderful pieces and suggested that I put them on display. People came from all over the United States and Europe to see my artwork at Paul Waggoner's gallery. I've been in many art shows, that's why I'm honored to be a part of the Art in the Garden exhibition to show my artwork and garden.

Lincoln Park

The Magical Mystery Garden by Ken Indermark, Chicago IL at Lincoln Park - South end of Rowing Lagoon, West of Lake Shore Drive (1700 N. Lake Shore Drive) The Magical Mystery Garden is a continuation of sculptural installations I have been creating for the last 10 years on the theme of roadside attractions. This truly American idiom has been luring travelers off the highways since the heydays of Route 66. I hope my work will divert folks from there hurried pace to "stop and smell the roses", or at least enjoy a moment in and at the garden. This garden is sponsored by Leo Burnett USA, Inc.

The Invisible Garden by Ellen Rothenberg, Chicago IL at Lincoln Park - Benjamin Franklin Statue, Northeast Corner of North Avenue & Stockton Drive (1601 N. Stockton Drive) The Invisible Garden is camouflaged, extending through the rows of trees leading from South Pond towards North Avenue and circling the statue of Ben Franklin. The garden maps a social space, a design derived from a fragment of camouflage used to make both military uniforms and fashion accessories. A space, which includes skate boarders, running children, families, and pedestrians, is also a corridor of projections and fantasies, a reflection of the political, social, and ideological issues of our moment. Like Gustav Klucis's 'radio-orator, The Invisible Garden becomes a point of broadcast and asks, "what aren't we seeing, what surrounds us but remains invisible? " Support for this garden was provided by Safway Services and Reflection Products, Inc.

Red Trees, Phase V, The Element of Ether by Lee Tracy, Chicago IL at Lincoln Park - at North Avenue just West of Lake Shore Drive (1600 N. LaSalle Drive) Red Trees, an artwork of "contemporary relics", responds to loss and the weakened condition of our natural resources by interacting with the four elements. In 2000, red cloth was nailed over 300 tree stumps in a clear-cut section of forest. In one year, the "shrouds" became altered by the elements, especially the sun. The fabric is imprinted with a unique sun-bleached impression of each tree. The fabric was then softened by the wind while hanging on a water tower stand in Chicago, and later purified in a pristine Maine lake. In Phase V, numerous "shrouds" are offered to the 5th element, Ether, the space between us. Around a mound of red flowers, remnant shroud pieces tied to bamboo poles are returning to Ether as each fiber slowly dissipates in the breeze. Red Trees is about hope.

Grandma Moses Garden by Georgina Valverde, Chicago IL at Lincoln Park - West side of Stockton Drive from Fullerton Avenue to Webster Avenue I've always been struck by the presence of plastic objects in the landscape, especially in natural settings. It is a jarring experience that speaks volumes about our present relationship with nature. The design for Grandma Moses Garden features the use of polypropylene netting commonly used to package produce and meats to create a series of winding fences growing in and out of the existing beds and spilling out into the surrounding landscape. The fencing will also delineate miniature artificial gardens constructed out of plastic throwaways from everyday life such as bottles and bottle caps, woven structures made of polypropylene rope, and fake plants and grass.

Mapping the Lake in the Garden by Frances Whitehead, Chicago IL at Lincoln Park - East Side of Stockton Drive from Belden Avenue to Webster Avenue (South of Lincoln Park Conservatory) The schema for the Lincoln Park Great Garden explores and updates Leo Marx's concept of The Machine in the Garden, as a key metaphor for our relation to the natural world. The flower beds will be carpet-bedded to data-map the ecology of Lake Michigan. Each quadrant of this Victorian, four-part symmetrical plan represents one of four groups of digitally generated data about the lake: physical characteristics, biota, water quality, and water use. The graphic renderings of conventional and spatial data are translated into bloom and foliage using a VIBGYOR palette. Like the white surround of a paper map, these images will be set against a planted silver background. Digitally produced garden signage will interpret the data for the public and literalize the machine in the garden. The artist thanks Lincoln Park Conservatory Horticulturist, Steven Meyer for his invaluable consultation. This garden is sponsored by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Please Also Visit These Gardens

The Chainsaw by Benjamin Schlitz, Chicago IL at Garfield Park Formal Garden, South of Madison Street & West of Central Park Avenue The Chainsaw: A portable power saw that has a number of sharp teeth linked together to form an endless chain. The Artist: A skilled performer. One who is proficient at something. The Tree: My medium These ten works of art were created in the month of February by Me, Myself, and I. I am Benjamin (BenOfficial) Schlitz. Blessed by our lovely city of Chicago and the Cultural Affairs "Open Studio Project", I was given the chance to show my true talents. The pieces of "Garden Art" displayed before you were done intuitively. With my chainsaw and chisel I created three dimensional characters derived from imagery within my mind. One Month for My Chicagoland People! Thank You.

Walking Roots by Steve Tobin, Bucks County PA at Lincoln Park - Northwest Corner of Fullerton Avenue and North Lincoln Park West Steve Tobin's Walking Roots is the fourth phase in the artist's "Earth Bronzes" series, which began with the 'Bonewall' in 1994; 'Forest Floor' in 1995; and 'African Termite Hills' in 1996. Roots are meant to shed light into unseen shadows and highlight the connectivity of all things. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Steve Tobin works in bronze, steel and ceramics. The Roots sculpture is part of an international traveling exhibition titled "Tobin's Naked Earth," which originated in New York with a yearlong exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History (2000-2001). It most recently spent a year on the grounds of the Page Museum/La Brea TarPits and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Roots is on loan to the Chicago Park District until Fall of 2005.