Luminous Gardens
My Luminous Gardens series is inspired by childhood memories: playing outdoors, immersed in nature, and by early readings of fairy tales, with their stories of transformation and enchantment. Animating natural elements with technology, these “gardens” create new forms. The glowing environments are created using colored LED's embedded in translucent forms cast from seed pods. Attached to thin stalks, the pods float and sway in air currents as viewers move through the space. Masses of tangled electrical wires suggest plant root systems, and the little lights could be thought of as their life force or energy.
Luminous Garden (Wave)
2019, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI
Luminous Garden (Wave) is the most recent installation in the Luminous Garden series and the first piece that utilizes a computer to choreograph the lights. LEDs brighten and dim in slow cycles like a wave or a deep breath. Being in the space lulled by the rhythm, slows you down and makes you aware of your own breathing. Read More
Materials: Cast resin seedpods, LEDs, wires
Dimensions: 3' H x 6' W x 10' L
“The gradual and flowing movement of Luminous Garden (Wave) , and calming blue color, are subtle directives to the viewer to take some moments to breathe. It is a work that encourages meditation and contemplation....." — Essay by Francine Weiss, Senior Curator at Newport Art Museum
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Art New England
Luminous Garden (Aerial)
2009, Boston Sculptors Gallery, Boston, MA
Inspired by a trip to the Galapagos and the experience of swimming underwater, the piece creates a floating world where viewers can journey. This immersive environment is made of tiny yellow LEDs set in cast resin acorn caps, that hover above tangles of delicate wire in a darkened room. Read More
Materials: Urethane resin, steel and copper wires, monofilament, electronics.
Dimensions: 8’6” H x 12’6” W x 12’6” L.
"... the sixth "Luminous Garden" environment and the most ethereal of the ones I have seen. Her father, a scientist who researched the interaction of plants and light, has influenced her work." — Boston Globe
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Boston Globe | MIT CAST | Sculpture Magazine | Hartford Courant
Luminous Garden (studio)
2008-09, 20 Vernon Street, Somerville, MA
Luminous Garden (Aerial) evolved over a year in my Somerville studio. These images show details of individual “garden” elements seen in ambient light, before they were installed in a gallery.
Materials: Urethane resin acorn caps LEDs, steel and copper wire, monofilament, electronics
Dimensions: variable
Luminous Garden (Suspended)
2011, Provincetown Art Museum, Provincetown, MA
Exhibition curator, Frank Vasello, suggested I include two installations showing my evolution from natural materials to technology. Both sculptures use acorn caps. Tangle, 2001, is made of tens of thousands of collected acorn caps, drilled and strung together on monofilament. Luminous Garden (Aerial), 2009, is made of glowing resin forms cast from acorn caps, LEDs and tangles of electrical wires.
For Tangle :
Materials: Acorn caps, monofilament
Dimensions: variable
For Luminous Garden (Aerial) :
Materials: Urethane resin, LEDs, wire, monofilament
Dimensions: 8'6" H x 12'6” W x 12’6” L
It is exciting to see how a piece of art interacts with the space in which it is located... — Provincetown Banner
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Provincetown Banner | Brochure
Luminous Gardens (Origins)
2008, Reeves Contemporary, New York, NY
Earlier luminous gardens were set in the ground and “planted,” suggesting a cultivated place. Origins is a wilder community. It’s a garden where plants break loose from the ground and undergo a metamorphosis. Some flora hang vertically like seaweed, some are loosely tethered to the ground, while others float freely in the air, all suggesting the possibility of movement.
Materials: Urethane resin, LEDs, steel and copper wire, beads, monofilament, electronics
Dimensions: Variable
Luminous Garden (Vineyard)
2006, Wave Hill, Bronx, NYC
In this site-specific installation, luminous flowering vines climb up the wall of a formal staircase at Wave Hill House. The piece transforms as light shifts from day to night.
Materials: Urethane resin, LEDs, steel wire, electronics
Dimensions: 6 - 8' H x 13' L x 6" D
Luminous Garden (Night Meadow)
2004, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Viewers walk through this enchanted garden on a meandering pathway, past yellow, orange and purple "flowers" that sparkle like fireflies. Evoking a meadow at dusk, this "natural" place is made entirely of industrial materials. The resin flowers are cast from acorn caps and water chestnut pods, each with a colored LED light inside and set atop a piano wire "stalk" that sways in the breeze as viewers move by.
Materials: Urethane resin, LEDs, steel and brass wire, electronics, fans
Dimensions: 10' x 15' 9" x 21' 9"
Beth Galston's Luminous Garden #2 (Night Meadow) is clearly enchanted. The flowers glow, attracting us with light rather than smell. — DeCordova Annual Catalog
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DeCordova Catalog | Boston Globe | Cambridge Tab | Boston Herald | Wild Apples
Luminous Garden
2003, Christopher Brodigan Gallery, Groton, MA
This immersive "garden" was inspired by walking through a field of wildflowers at the end of the suburban street where I grew up. The field no longer exists, but the experience remains alive in my memory. This first environment in the Luminous Garden series grew out of my desire to capture light within the natural forms I collected and cast in translucent resin. I wanted to use these elements to transform a space, creating a landscape for viewers to explore. Read More
Materials: Urethane resin, LEDs, steel wire, electronics, fans
Dimensions: 3' H x 15' W x 21' L
Luminous Garden" is another spritely and haunting piece by installation artist Beth Galston, who makes a practice of transforming spaces with delicate materials and light." — Boston Globe
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Boston Globe | artsMedia, 2003 | artsMedia, 2002 | Art New England | Boston Phoenix | Carlisle Mosquito | Circle Voice
