Nadia Niggli’s “Murmuration” was inspired by a swarm of starlings.
Beginning on Sept. 2, as the sun sets each evening, six large-scale illuminated sculptures will pulse to life at Olbrich Botanical Gardens.
The exhibit, titled “GLEAM: Art in a New Light,” will run through Oct. 30 at various sites within the 16-acre multi-garden showpiece.
Olbrich, on the shore of Lake Monona at the mouth of Starkweather Creek, is one of Madison’s most enduring triumphs, a masterfully cultivated woodland arcadia of winding pathways, gently flowing and reflecting waters and an ecstatic array of horticultural biodiversity. As a setting for a collaborative public art installation on environmental and nature-inspired themes, it’s an unbeatable destination, day or night.
As one example of the scale of the exhibit, sculptor Nadia Niggli’s installation, titled “Murmuration,” features a field of stalk-like steel stems mounted with abstract birds in wood veneer, all of which are designed to sway in the wind. The work is 7 feet tall and about 10 feet wide. “You have to go as big as you can in this amazing environment,” she says. Projected colored lights from four LED “wall washers” are on a programmed dimming sequence, adding to the wow factor.
Each of the six works, selected from a juried competition out of 30 proposals, has been assigned an expert lighting designer under the direction of Joel Reinders.
Madison sculptors Laura Richards and Will Turnbull are the creators of “Alighting,” a stunning and intricate six-foot glowing dragonfly in blown glass and forged lattice metal wire, perched on an arbor overhead to greet viewers as they enter the self-guided walk-through paths of the exhibit. Several other sites and permanent sculptures in the gardens will also feature new lighting, in colors and sequences built to charm.
With its programmable LED strip in multiple shifting colors, this dragonfly will change its sex and species several times a night. “I’m inspired by the structural elegance and architecture of organic forms,” Turnbull says.
Niggli stresses that, in addition to the nighttime ticketed viewings, all of the pieces in the exhibit are free to see during the day (the outdoor gardens’ daytime admission has always been free), when the sculptures will be on full display in natural sunlight.
But it is in the nocturnal possibilities for her work that Richards sees some of the best opportunities for “surprise, wonder and new appreciation for public art.”
“The scale of what we’re doing gets attention quickly, and it has immediate visual impact,” Turnbull says. “I hope that viewers of our work will find themselves reconnecting with a sense of wonder and going deeper into the meanings of the environment that’s all around us.”