Sculpture Parks

Let's follow Matt on a walk through the sculpture gardens of Santiago!

There's a 4+ mile-long corridor of green parks that pass by our apartment.  The parks are bordered by the bustling downtown of Santiago on one side and the Rio Mapocho on the other.  The river itself is a little underwhelming- mostly a trickle of muddy water over a concrete bed.  The parks however, do not disappoint!  We're impressed by how well-utilized the parks are by locals, most of whom seem happy to just sit on the grass and hangout.  

In this blog post, we'll talk you through two sculpture gardens that are integrated with the parks.  Hopefully our analysis won't make our former art professors cringe.

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

Last weekend, we made it to the Parque Bicentinario in a neighborhood called Vitacura, about 3 miles from our apartment.

First up- a lovely phoenix sculpture.  Matt and I liked how the metallic base is made from 4 repeating components.  Although the shape is relatively abstract and heavy, together the 4 pieces evoke the imagery of fire!

Not too sure what to say about this one... there's some play with smooth versus rough textures and cylinders versus squares.  From a afar, the sculptures look like religious crosses.

Next up, we visited the 'Parque de las Esculturas" in the Providenica neighborhood.  On this outing, we rented bikes to explore the park.  Unfortunately, the bikes were only 1-speed, and although the region is mostly flat, we'll definitely be searching for an upgrade for our next bike ride.

This concrete sculpture rests parallel to the Rio Mapocho and reminded me of a waterfall.  It's also pretty much the same color as the Rio Mapocho...

A 3-D maze!  Matt had to take of his backpack to slide through.  

The little girl in this photo (squint a bit) had no trouble navigating!

Funky textures!  Each pilar was named after a different concept or element, such as "love" and "earth".

This sculpture reminded us of a tree trunk.  The gaps between the slats become increasingly larger as they radiate out from the center, kind of like rings in a tree trunk.  Matt also pointed out that the golden disc in the middle highlights how a large tree can grow from one single seed.

Karen especially liked this sculpture.  The organic driftwood slats are meticulously held together by vertical wooden "stitches".  The interior of the shape is hollow and the overall form is reminiscent of a teardrop, making the entire shape seem surprisingly light and  fluid.

  

A boat on rocky seas?  Acrobats?  An ironing board?

Signing off for now! Karen