Chihuly at Kew Gardens: Review by Caian

Dale Chihuly is an American glass artist andentrepreneur. He is perhaps best known in thefield of blown glass, "moving it into the realm oflarge-scale sculptures.He works in blowingglass and is well known for his work to resembleplants. Nature is a massive inspiartion for hiswork as his exhibitions are designed tocompliment his sculptures to nature.I visited his exhibition in Kew Gardens.

Chihuly has used glass to resemble lily pads. These glass lily pads complement the natural lily pads. The white glass strongly implies that Dale wants you to be able to tell which is glass and which is not. This suggets that Dales work is not meant to perceive nature in a realistic way but more of an expressionalist and creative approach.

I would strongly recommend visiting Kew Gardens to view this exhibition. What struck me most was the large scale of the art pieces interwoven with nature–truly beautiful.• Chihuly is an international artist and has had many installations around the world. It was a privilege to see his pieces and his drawings. There was a video at Kew Gardens that showed how his ideas came to life. He likes a challenge and the bigger the better, he is a perfectionist but is not afraid to make mistakes. He lost one of his eyes in a car accident but still continued with his passion.

In his exhibition in Jerusalem, Israel, in 2000,in addition to the glass pieces, he had enormous blocks of transparent ice brought in from an Alaskan artesian well and formed a wall, echoing the stones of the nearby Citadel. Lights with colour gels were set up behind them for illumination. Chihuly said the melting wall represented the "dissolution of barriers" between people. This exhibit holds the world record for most visitors to a temporary exhibit with more than 1.3 million visitors