Phew. Don’t have to start with my innervated spiel about art and botanical gardens, sounding like a broken record. As it turns out, the universe of plastic animalia that we walked into by chance, looking for a break during the long drive to Southern California last month, was located in what they call an “Exploration Park.” Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding, CA, to be precise. It contains a botanical garden and arboretum, but also features museums, forest camps, a sundial bridge and much more. Amusement, then.
The critters were larger than life, intensely colorful under the bright California sun, but apparently unfolded their real magic a night, when they all lit up for a technicolor spectacle. (You can see a video of it in the link.)
I must admit I had fun walking down the dusty pathways, watching little kids in awe of the oversized fauna. Did they learn anything? Who knows. Must we always learn something? Not really. Sometimes I need to remind myself that there is nothing wrong with simply wallowing in pleasure, on a bright day, surrounded by whimsical assemblies of plastic wildlife.
I did think, though, about oversized animals that do come with a message. Partly because I deeply agree with the message, and partly because I admire the artistic process that underlies the final sculptures. Here are some samples of real art, by sculptor Quentin Garel.
The French artist, who was educated at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, has it in with hunting for trophies, denouncing “a proud practice of man, a domination over the animal seen only as an object of consumption,” or as an means of inciting status envy and signaling the belonging to the exclusive club of wealthy trophy hunters I might add.
He began working with landscapers and architects for public spaces: sculpting work that is figurative but also anamorphic, playing with size and excerpts. According to his gallery, “Garel claims to be a sculptor of form rather than concept, between art and science, wood and metal, dental surgery and the unrestrained chainsaw.”
Gallery LJ in Paris will open his newest solo show in October 2024 in Paris. Catch it, if you’ll have the chance! With a 15 minutes walk through the Marais you can reward yourself later with the best kosher pastries in Paris, at Boulangerie Murciano, with a divine Apfelstrudel. At least that was possible when I last visited, now too many years ago. But I digress. In between the two locations you can visit Musée Carnavalet that presents the history of Paris.
Garel’s sculptures evolve through initial charcoal drawings, which he then converts into wooden sculptures. From there moulds are taken and cast in bronze. Many of them are now situated in public gardens across France. More information can be found here.
I find the drawings as attractive if not, in some instances, even more so than the sculptures.
It is wonderful work and the artist seems to have a sense of humor that certainly appears in the sculpture as much as in his own demeanor…
Can’t help it, music has to be about the hunt – mainly because there are so many beautiful pieces out there celebrating something that in earlier times was part of stocking the larders, rather than simply catching trophies. Although that was probably always the case as well. Joseph Haydn it shall be, Symphony No. 73 in D major “La chasse”.