Royal Botanical Gardens For the Spring of 1883

Project Description:

In preparation for hosting the International Botanical Gardens Association Annual Conference, the Royal Botanical Gardens sought to invigorate a key transitional space of its main facility, an 100’ long tunnel connecting the RBG Centre to Hendrie Gardens, the home of the Rose Gardens and the Dan Lawrie International Sculpture Collection.

RBG enlisted the help of Cobalt Connects to explore what could be done within a fixed budget to show off the organization’s history in a unique way.  Dr. David Galbraith, RBG Head of Science, noted that the organization held an incredible, and largely unseen, archive of seed catalogues filled with vibrant images. Cobalt Connects took a glimpse into the collection and fell in love, and then enlisted the skills of collage artist Lisa Pijuan-Nomura and designer Dave Kuruc to collaborate on the project.

After sifting through thousands of pages of vintage publications, the team digitized select materials that reflected the overall collection. Pijuan-Numura then went to work crafting a scale model of the tunnel and collaging the materials in paper. Working with digitized collection Kuruc and Cobalt blew the images up and enhanced their resolution and detail while still holding on their ephemeral quality.

Finally, working with LED Solutions choice elements were then converted into custom back-lit elements, giving the mural depth and light, animating it for patrons year-round at RBG programming.

Client: Royal Botanical Gardens

Collaborators: RBG staff/volunteers, Lisa Pijuan-Nomura, Dave Kuruc, LED Solutions

Website: https://www.rbg.ca/things-to-do/art-in-the-gardens/legacy-art/

City: Hamilton, ON

Date: 2017