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| Eastern Parkway Entrance, Brooklyn Botanic Garden. |
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| Detail, entrance gate, and possible floral inspiration. |
During a retreat by the Polar Vortex, which has had the US Eastern Seaboard in an icy grip, DH and I took in an unusual exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG).
Knit, Purl, Sow was reviewed in the
Wall Street Journal, putting knitting on the map in a way this fiber medium seldom is, sadly. The BBG was one of the few cultural institutions open on Martin Luther King, Jr., day and, better still, admission was free.
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| Tatyana Yanishevsky, Anatomically Correct Hibiscus. |
The exhibit, which ran from October, 2013 until January, 2014. was presented in the atrium space of the Steinhardt Conservatory, a rather heavy-handed piece of architecture, but home to the BBG's own Terrace Cafe, where we enjoyed a delicious cauliflower-gruyere quiche, washed down with the Juice of the Day, a ruby blend of carrot, beet, celery and ginger. Between the juice and the reviving warmth of the conservatory greenhouses it was better than a trip to a Canyon Ranch spa.
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| Visitors and artwork. |
The work impresses in its craftsmanship and use of color and composition, and the unexpected scale of the forms elicited from this viewer a certain
frisson of delightful menace - Granny's afghan meets Ridley Scott. Knitting with an edge.
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| Tatyana Yanishevsky, Anatomically Correct Passionflower. |
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| Lotus, Ruth Marshall. |
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| Detail, Lotus. |
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| Detail, Lotus. |
Knitting goes truly monumental in the work of Ruth Marshall, one of three artists featured in the show; the other two were Tatyana Yanishevsky and Santiago Venegas.
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| Sweater Turns into Maidenhair Fern, Santiago Venegas. |
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| Tatyana Yanishevsky, Tiger Lily. |
Of course, we had to see some actual plants and, no matter the season, it's a gala of form and texture.
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| Flower, leaf, stem and bark. |
The new Visitor's Center, a green building worthy of the name, has a good gift shop; I was tempted by the wonderful selection of potted plants.
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| Visitor's Center gift shop. |
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| Many items can be mail ordered. |
We bundled up and walked back to the subway station, admiring the garden - leafless, dormant, yet fascinating.
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| A venerable vine twists and turns sinuously on the orthogonal trellis. |
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| Torii gate in the Japanese garden. |
From December to March, there are for many of us three gardens - the garden outdoors, the garden of pots and bowls in the house, and the garden of the mind's eye.
- Katherine S. White
