Field of Science

Stranger in a strange land - Magic Gardens

Without question BGT (Botanical Geek Tour) #4 included a range of gardens and garden personalities probably greater than the span of all gardens previously visited, no small number, and that was largely, but not wholly, because of the intriguing Magic Gardens.  When you're on a garden tour, how can you not look for some magic.  But nothing, nothing, nothing can prepare you for the strangeness, the audacity,  of Magic Gardens, the epic creation of 73 year old artist, Isaiah Zagas.  It's like falling down the rabbit hole and landing in a wonderland of mosaic sculpture, one that covers the entire inside and outside of a house, or two, and then flows rampantly into the patio, onto the sidewalk, overflowing and growing beyond eventually covering over 100 walls on Philadelphia's south side.  Magic Gardens is somewhere in the neighborhood of genius with a good measure of manic, compulsive crazy thrown in for added flavor.  At times you find a fragmented mosaic of yourself looking back from mirrored portions, and then you take a step back and a face suddenly resolves itself from the apparent chaos of pieces of china, mirror, tiles, bottles, and the like.  And a garden it is, fertile, sprouting, growing, rampant, more organic than its material components.  There's some flowers, you might imagine, or a starry, starry night.  Words do not do it justice because quite simply it is magical, and whimsical, and crazy, but if you get to Philly, don't miss it. Without question this is the weirdest, wonderful-est garden the Phactor has ever visited.  This puts a new spin on recycling.  

1 comment:

north carolina eye doctor said...

Absolutely. They give extra life in the garden.