My last fun blog involved a visit to Kew Gardens; so does this one. But this is very different, not least because the emphasis is on the outdoors rather than being inside. And, as you can tell from the photos here, the weather for my visit to southwest London last week was essentially excellent.
This latest display is called Light into Life, an art exhibition inspired by nature and science and brought into being by Marc Quinn. He announced his talent to the world in the 1990s with a bust of his head created with 10 pints of his own blood. In 2005, he provided the sculpture for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square – a 3.5 metre high white marble masterpiece of his friend Alison Lapper, who was born without arms, has shortened legs and was pregnant at the time. Quinn was perhaps regarded as the most shocking of the Young British Artists, and now into his 60s he is still in search of the avant-garde. In the words of the guide: “Inspired by Kew’s landscape and collections, [Quinn] has developed these artworks in close collaboration with Kew scientists and horticulturists.”
In this exhibition, the cast of his own head is a more delicate creation than on that previous occasion. Here it is in coconut milk. Elsewhere, Quinn has been inspired by the bonsai trees of Masahiko Kimura. In the Sunday Times, Waldemar Januszczak posed a point. “By enlarging Kimura’s artificially dwarfed trees to normal height, thereby reversing the bonsai process, Quinn asks itchy questions about humanity’s treatment of nature: is it our ally or our plaything?” So not a complete fan, then.
A review in London’s Evening Standard noted that in the exhibition “there is a little base sexuality mixed with the high concepts”. For example, ‘Burning Desire’ is based on the depiction of a plant’s reproductive organs; Quinn also calls it a “pun on” female genitalia. Whatever, when I was there, there was no end of people queueing up to have their photo taken beside it, either by a friend or via a selfie.
Whatever your ultimate take on what’s on show here, it is without doubt colourful and intriguing – particularly on a sunny day. Light into Life runs at Kew Gardens until September 29.