I am not always a fan of sculpture in a garden. Nature is so beautiful and intricate it is a relief not to see the marks of human endeavour in the frame.
However I think garden Sculpture works when it takes us deeper into the landscape or a garden and makes us see nature with fresh eyes. Maybe in contrast or as a compliment or as a way to humble our position in the world.
I like the prostrate marble figure at Parham House in West Sussex so different from classical sculptures where the hero has triumphed, or the death mask, also at Parham, with its reminder that the trees will last long after we are forgotten. And the shy woman wrought from cold hard stone but also soft and considerably more fragile than the bricks and branches and and plant life around her.
The floating Blue Circle turns ornamental grass into an ocean of movement and subtle colour and the cube of photos, taken from the Chelsea 2016 Flower Show, now residing at the Praire Gardens, makes us stop and think about nature and the images we take of it.
