Apr 212011
The Chinese Garden at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Gardens, in San Marino, California. I saw the most amazing special exhibit by John Frame called “Three Fragments of a Lost Tale”.
According to the gallery notes, “the project had its beginnings in a dream: Frame was jolted awake by what seemed like an unfolding story complete with cast and scenes. It would become his next body of work and, he says, may carry him through the remainder of his lifetime.”
This was the first piece I saw upon entering the gallery and I was in love. The gallery was dark, just spot lights showed on the pieces and that meant you saw them in a very theatrical way.
There was a 12 minute movie that the artist did, which was stop action of his figures moving through a dream like sequence. This particular bed took center stage and took my breath away. He had grass growing through the bed with time lapse photography, then another character came with a scythe, my feeling was that it was indicative of death, and cut the grass.
This character and again the bed, played their parts in another video that can be seen on the Huntington Web site.
John Frame was a local southern California guy with an MFA from Claremont, but I really could not find out much more about him. If you get the chance – go see the exhibit.
Regarding the first picture, I went straight to the Chinese garden upon the opening of the grounds, so I was able to get many shots in that garden before the hordes of people arrived. The Japanese garden is closed for a year for retrofitting. There are 10 specialty gardens on the 150 acres of the estate.
Your pictures are wonderful, but thanks also for including such interesting background information! I love reading it!
What a wonderful and informative post. Your photographs are fantastic. I especially like the first one.
Thank you so much for sharing this today at The Creative Exchange.
Have a wonderful day!
lisa.
Really wonderful photos!!
The Chinese garden looks beautiful!