EXHIBIT SHOWS WHAT’S NEW ON THE HORIZON
Anyone who ventures into Cal State Fullerton’s “Six Views: Contemporary Landscape Architecture” exhibit looking for topiary tips or new ways to use lawn mulch should first heed curator Pamela Burton’s warning:
“This is about landscaping,” she said. “It’s not a home and garden show. Those expecting it to be may be disappointed.”
What people will find at the exhibit, which continues in CSUF’s Main Art Gallery until Dec. 10, are examples of the direction that professional landscape architecture has taken in recent years and may take in the future, Burton said. The range is from the more traditional, like rolling parks created to beautify a city, to the more adventurous.
Take, for instance, the model of a roof garden that Martha Schwartz built for the Whitehead Institute, a genetics research think tank in San Francisco. The environment, enclosed on four sides but open to the sky, literally sets our assumptions on end by suspending plastic trees at right angles from the walls. They parallel a floor covered with a greenish gravel-like material arranged in flowing waves and concentric circles. Off to the side are lawn chairs and tables surrounded by more artificial shrubbery.
“What I’m trying to do is show the many possibilities posed by landscaping,” Schwartz said by telephone from her New York office. “It can express more and create more than just a pretty, bovine environment. You can play with ideas and make something rather unusual, like what I think I accomplished at Whitehead. It’s a field that is evolving.”
Landscape architecture may be evolving, but it’s nothing new. Its antecedents go back several centuries, particularly in Europe, where royal gardeners turned palace grounds into worlds of hedge mazes, lovely orchards and winding paths. The sensational expanses surrounding France’s Palace of Versailles, the home of Louis XIV, the notorious “Sun King,” were the work of “landscape architects.”
In more recent times, practitioners have molded public and private lands for cities, industry and homeowners. Most of the trees and bushes that line freeways, skirt parking lots, freshen up drab government buildings and decorate parks can be traced to landscape architects.
To give insight into the field, the CSUF exhibit uses scale models, a slide presentation, plan drawings and photographs to show the projects of major landscape architects, which, Burton said, are on “the cutting edge.” Displayed are works by Gary Dwyer, George Hargreaves, Pat O’Brien, Barbara Meacham, Peter Walker, Ron Wigginton, Andrew Spurlock, Katherine Spitz and Schwartz.
The designs of Burton, a landscape architect who organized the show with gallery director Dextra Frankel, are included. Burton helped found a Santa Monica firm that has done commercial, residential and public projects in the Los Angeles area since 1975.
The exhibit attempts to reveal the field’s artistic roots. Practitioners are more than fancy gardeners who decide whether to rim an avenue with eucalyptus or pine trees, Burton stressed.
“Of course, those practical decisions are very much a part of what we do, but it’s just part of the picture,” Burton explained. “You have to remember that landscaping is an art form. We create many of our designs as any other artist would. We look at historical perspectives and we search for metaphors in our work.”
Projects can take remarkably personal turns. Gary Dwyer’s quirky concepts go beyond practical considerations and are more in line with environmental artists like Christo, who in 1976 created “Running Fence,” a 24-mile-long white cloth wall running through Sonoma and Marin counties in northern California. Dwyer’s drawings center on the San Andreas Fault, where, in his imagination, he has painted immense black stripes resembling piano keys. Other giant designs imposed on the landscape reflect his interest in American Indian symbols.
In his exhibit statement, Dwyer says: “Landscape architects are strange beasts. The urge to engage in this artistic realm comes from many sources. In my case, it comes from a concern with the earth and what the earth means to me.”
Although his designs are more evocative than realistic, Burton believes that Dwyer makes an important point about one of landscape architecture’s main goals--ecological conservation and proper use of land.
“Our responsibility as environmentalists can be profound,” she observed. “Most good landscape architects do not take that responsibility lightly and try not to disturb (the environment), but add to it.”
But Schwartz argues that there is room for compromise between the stricter environmentalists and the more inventive landscape architects. Practitioners must be mindful of the natural order of things but should also be prepared to manipulate the landscape to create a more attractive environment.
“You have to remember that even some natural settings can be ugly,” Schwartz said. “We should feel free to change that if we can improve it.”
Not all the show’s displays are as avant-garde as Dwyer’s or as experimental as Schwartz’s. Many are a hybrid of classical themes and contemporary innovations. Ron Wigginton and Andrew Spurlock are known, among other things, for their clever but practical use of foliage in plazas, atriums and public squares.
In their projects, they’ve mounted plants on several sculptural forms ranging from tall obelisks to arches to long rectangular and curvilinear stands. Rocks and smooth stones, both natural and artificial, are arrayed in complementary patterns. Spurlock said he wants the settings to be comfortable but also stimulating.
“We are trying to keep a continuum and balance between what has come before and what may come,” Spurlock said from his San Diego office. “You have to make an appealing statement that has some style but is not too off-the-wall. Part of the process is looking at the relationship between inorganic (sculptural pieces) and the organic (foliage). Reaching a harmony there can make for something very nice.”
CSUF’s Main Art Gallery, situated in the visual arts department building, is open from noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
