Missouri Botanical Garden - Niki 2008

The Garden offers a number of sources for plant care advice. You can call us on weekday mornings at (314) 577-5143. For fact sheets prepared by the Kemper Center for Home Gardening, go online to www.gardeninghelp.org. Stop by the Kemper Center to use reference materials or ask for guide sheets on growing and caring for orchids. You can also bring a sick plant to our walk-in Plant Doctor for identification and diagnosis services. The Kemper Center also offers classes for both novice and experienced orchid growers. Our gift shop sells plants, orchid care products and lots of gardening books and accessories. Plant society shows and sales at the Garden offer another opportunity to buy orchids, ask questions, and get advice from knowledgeable members.

Stop at Tower Grove House Tower Grove House is the country home of the Garden’s founder, Henry Shaw. Shaw opened the Garden around his country home in 1859 and oversaw its first 30 years. After 100 years of use as a private home, school, dormitory, and office building, the Tower Grove House underwent meticulous renovation. Furniture and materials once belonging to Shaw were located and returned. It opened to the public in 1953. Tower Grove House was rededicated on October 29, 2005 after another period of extensive restoration. The house has been restored to reflect how it looked when Shaw resided here. Today, staff and volunteers encourage visitors to take a step back in time and experience the country home of Henry Shaw. Many of the 19th century furnishings belonged to Shaw; others are of the same era. Timelines help visitors discover how Tower Grove House was used after 1889. Voices from the past tell stories of those who helped build Shaw’s Garden. The Garden has grown over the last 150 years. Come inside and see where it all began.

On Guide: n4 Sculpture: Chairs Location: Linnean House Niki was prolific in her production of large-scale sculpture and entire environments of art. But she also wanted to create pieces on a domestic scale that people could have in their homes. Chairs, Grand lphant vase, and even the Oiseau amoureux are examples of this period of her work. Oiseau amoureux inside the Climatron was originally designed to be a giant kite for a worldwide traveling kite exhibition in 1988. Birds had a constant theme in Nikis workshe said some were immoral, sad, triumphant, hungry...or even in love.

On Guide: n16 Sculpture: Seals Location: Shapleigh Fountain Niki said that for many years, a good deal of her work was concerned with bringing joy, color, and an aggressive humor and fantasy to life. Nikis playful animals were part of her vision of sculpture committed to bringing joy. The colorful mosaics that cover them appeal to both the eye and the body. Niki felt it was very important that both adults and children interact with her sculptures. She loved to see children climb on these animals. Feel free to touch, sit, crawl on, or enter them. Their edges are rounded so that kids can climb on them safely. The concave lap of Cat (n14) is an intimate refuge in which you can curl up. Nikigator, Seals, Guardian Lions, and Cat descend from the mosaic animals with which Niki surrounded the artist Mario Bottas Ark in their collaborative interpretation of the Noahs Ark story, at the childrens zoo in Jerusalem.

On Guide: n17 Sculpture: Nikigator Location: Near Kemper Center My name is Laura Gabriela, and Im Nikis daughter. I remember Niki as the wise Nikigator. Niki was undaunted by opposition, she wasnt afraid of being attacked. On the contrary she took it all as a response and it stimulated her and it gave fuel to her fire and she knew she that was on the right track and she had more to do and it just kept her going. As a kid I was a little you know scared sometimes because these artists bring things that are new and there is a lot of hostility that shows up sometimes but I understand that she knew how to play the game of life and she knew how to respond creatively and she never lost her focus and she used the opposition to keep going and Im still learning from that.

On Guide: n20 Sculpture: Louis Armstrong Location: Cohen Amphitheater In 1998, Niki began work on a series of Black Hero sculptures, paying tribute to prominent African-Americans. They included jazz musicians Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, who was born and raised just across the Mississippi River in East St. Louis. Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong are not only cultural icons, but also draw upon Nikis early marriage and life in Paris. Her first husband was a musician who was interested in jazz. The young couple was a part of the Paris jazz scene in the late 1950s and early Sixties. These mosaic musicians are fleshed out with stained and mirrored glass as well as tumbled stones, with gold leaf for the jazz instruments. Notice how the diverse sizes and shapes of the hand-cut mirrors on their trousers affect the textures and perception of color.

On Guide: n21 Sculpture: Star Fountain Location: Climatron Two sculptures in this exhibitionStar Fountain and Arbres Serpent (n2)are closely related to Nikis Tarot Garden. In the 1970s, inspired by the artist Gauds park in Barcelona, Niki dreamed of creating a sculpture garden based on the cards of the Tarot deck used by fortune tellers. An Italian patron offered her land in southern Tuscany, where she completed her Tarot Garden in 1998, just four years before she died. The project took 20 years. It is among the permanent sculpture gardens she created. The others are Queen Califias Magical Circle in Escondido, California, and Golem and Noahs Ark, both in Jerusalem. Arbres Serpent, combining plant and animal life into one, is based symbolically on the Tree of Life that housed the card of the Hung Man. It was designed to be a complex fountain. The snake appeared in her early images of femininity. In the 1980s, she adopted serpents as her signature motif for a perfume she produced to finance the Tarot Garden. Star Fountain is not only a monumental woman but also symbolic of the tarot card deck, with its iconic flowing water, stars, and planets. According to Niki, the star represented the wholeness of being, lost in modern civilization, as well as renewal.

On Guide: n22 Sculpture: Femme Bleu Location: Shoenberg Temperate House Air became part of Nikis artistic palette with her see-through The Skinnies, made of bronze and polyurethane paint. Niki saw New Man is Coming and Femme Bleu as air sculptures that breathe and invite you to look right through them. She linked their breathing and skeletal look with the experiences of her own ailing body.

On Guide: n23 Sculpture: Buddha Location: Outside Shoenberg Temperate House Most of Nikis sculptures are made of polyurethane foam, some with a steel structure underneath. They are covered with polyester, before the mosaic pieces are attached with silicon or epoxy. The mosaic pieces are glass, mirrors, ceramic tiles and polished stones that Niki called M&M's. Sadly, Nikis art proved to be detrimental to her health. In the late 1960s, she began covering her sculptures with polyester paint to make them durable outdoors. The toxic fumes from the polyester resin and other plastic materials she used severely damaged her lungs, and caused recurrent health problems. Niki began making her own ceramics for the mosaics in her Tarot Garden project in Tuscany. Mosaics allowed her to create more widely varied, durable and decorative surfaces. For health reasons, she moved to La Jolla, California, near San Diego, in 1994. She continued to create art until her death in 2002 at the age of 71.

voice: Babs Wagner Resource: Kemper Center fact sheet I’m Babs Wagner and I take care of the Garden’s orchid collection. It’s one of the largest and finest in the country. We grow more than 8,000 orchid plants behind the scenes, in our greenhouses. They make up our largest living collection, representing over 2,500 unique species, varieties and hybrids. For this display, I try to show you as many different varieties as I can, so you can appreciate their amazing diversity. We grow many rare and unusual specimens here. Some are over 100 years old. Many of the Cattleyas in this show are no longer available commercially. They were created many years ago and they are no longer produced. Our collection emphasizes the kinds of orchids that can survive St. Louis’s hot summers. The stars of this show are the winter-bloomers. To get them to bloom on time, I manipulate the greenhouse temperatures, starting in October. The variety of orchids you see here changes over six weeks. We start with about 800. I switch out approximately 50 to 100 plants each week and replace them with fresh ones from the greenhouse. First thing every morning, I look for faded blossoms and slice them off with a sharp razor blade to keep the plants looking fresh.

Voice: Pat Scace I’m Pat Scace, the exhibit designer. Our exhibit begins as a concept between my assistant and me more than a year before its installation. We change themes each year. Props are designed by us and built by volunteers specific to each show. The display is installed by a team of volunteers and the Horticulture Division staff. Each orchid plant here is part of our permanent collection. We display them to look as natural as possible with epiphytic orchids in trees and terrestrials on the ground. Surrounded by bark and a surface treatment of moss, our temporary landscape is meant to be as realistic as possible. When the show ends, everything is dismantled and the plants are returned to the production greenhouses until next year. You can see how it all comes together on the Garden’s Web site, mobot-dot-org. Check out the photos of the installation in progress.

Voice: Jennifer Wolff I’m Jennifer Wolff. Our orchids have a long and proud history at the Garden, but they didn’t always grow here. Back in 1926, the orchids were threatened by dirty city air from coal smoke and industrial pollution. So, the Garden moved them 30 miles west, out to Gray Summit, to what is now the Shaw Nature Reserve. Greenhouses were built there especially for this purpose. The next year, in 1927, an orchid seedling department was started. From the late 1920’s until 1958, the Garden sold cut orchid flowers to local florists. This business grossed over $700,000, and made up to $50,000 at one time. The sale of orchids covered all costs associated with the collection, as well as the operation of what was then known as the Shaw Arboretum. Through propagation, gifts and collecting, the orchid collection grew in size and prominence. In 1954, St. Louis hosted the first World Orchid Congress. By 1958, the city’s air quality had improved, and so the orchid collection returned to its original home here at the Garden, where it has remained ever since.

Voice: Babs Wagner Resources: Public Relations fact sheet, Bulletin articles, Kemper Center handout I’m Peter Raven. The Garden’s orchid collection has a historic connection with one of St. Louis’s longest standing traditions. The Veiled Prophet Parade is one of the country’s oldest parades. The first one was held here in 1878, sponsored by a group of civic leaders who wanted to promote St. Louis commerce. It was modeled on New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebration. Today, the annual Veiled Prophet Parade in July continues to draw crowds by the thousands. The Garden supplies fresh orchids for the mysterious Veiled Prophet’s float. It is the only community event for which the Garden provides cut orchids. The Garden first provided freshly cut orchids in 1926 for a massive bouquet carried by the Veiled Prophet’s “Queen of Love and Beauty.” For many years, on the day after the coronation ball, this bouquet was displayed at the Garden. In 1947, approximately 5,000 curious visitors came in one day to see the Queen’s bouquet on display in the greenhouse! The Veiled Prophet Queen’s bouquet measures up to 3 feet long and 2 feet across, and contains hundreds of blossoms. All of the orchids are selected two days before the ball, to ensure the finest flowers are chosen.

Voice: Chip Tynan Resources: Kemper Center fact sheets, Plant Doctor I’m Chip Tynan of the Horticulture Answer Service. The Garden offers a number of sources for plant care advice. You can call us on weekday mornings at (314) 577-5143. For fact sheets prepared by the Kemper Center for Home Gardening, go online to the Web site, www-dot-gardeninghelp-dot-org. The Garden also offers classes for both novice and experienced orchid growers. Stop by the Kemper Center to use reference materials or ask for guide sheets on growing and caring for orchids. You can also bring in a sick plant to our walk-in Plant Doctor for identification and problem diagnosis services. Our gift shop sells plants, orchid care products and lots of gardening books and accessories. Plant society shows and sales at the Garden offer another opportunity to buy orchids, ask questions, and get advice from knowledgeable members. The Orchid Society of St. Louis hosts events at the Garden in April and August.

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Voice: Royal Katiyo, Chapungu Artist My name is Royal Katiyo. I'm an artist from Zimbabwe. I learned to sculpt from a friend by the name of Luke Mgavazi. That was in 1992, after my school. I joined Chapungu in 1994. Chapungu invited me to work with them as a resident artist. Mostly I want to sculpt quails. I like these birds, it is my favorite. These birds, I used to hate them when I grew up because they'd come to our fields and eat our seeds after we plant our seeds. But now, I like them because it's easier for me when I look at the stone to decide what to make. I'd like people to know about my work that we should conserve nature because these birds are part of nature and part of our life.

Voice: Nicolas Kadsungura, Chapungu Artist My name is Nicholas Kadzungura. I'm an artist from Zimbabwe. I started sculpting in 1987 under the guidance of Dominic Benhura, one of our first generation artists in Zimbabwe. Ten years later, I went to Chapungu Sculpture Park when I was invited as a resident artists. I always like to sculpt people, especially the groups: Teaching Mother to Read, Innocent Victim of Political Violence, and also Sole Proud of My Children. On Teaching Mother to Read, this sculpture is right here in this exhibit. There is long story about it. When Zimbabwe was under the British rule, the elders didn't have the chance to go to school. Now, the children have the chance to go to school and they come back teaching their parents to read and their parents become very proud of their children. And also I did one which I call Innocent Victim of Political Violence. That I want people to unite and lets not fight.