Gardens of the Surreal and Serene

The Aga Khan Museum and Garden in Toronto continues the trend towards gardens that engage in the surreal, other-worldly, serene and spiritual. It was in 1997 that the J.P. Getty Museum and Garden in Los Angeles, CA was opened. It is located on a hillside of 110 acres and the cost was $1.3 billion. The gardens are graceful spaces set within travertine walls of the Museum.  The walls  absorb and reflect light to create a backdrop of simplicity and warmth. I consider it a garden where the visitor can experience the serene, surreal and spiritual.  This is because sections of the garden are set within massive walls. They remove every day settings and objects and replace them with  uniformity and indefiniteness.  That is what can be experienced as the universal, the serene and the spiritual. In contrast, there are many social areas in the garden.  There are massive trees of bougainvillea that charm the visitor with their other-worldly size.  There's the playfulness of the scent of the sunken garden - it smells of 'skunk' (!) from the mass planting of Society Garlic.  And there are great panoramic views of Los Angeles from the balconies.  These give one a 'commanding' view  - leading to a sense of 'over-wordliness'. As one exits to the plaza below, again the walls separate one from the external world.  The silver and black plantings are intensified and magnified so that a 'surreal' garden is experienced. The Getty Centre is in perfect harmony with its location - Los Angeles seems to be the ideal place for gardens that delve into the real of the surreal and other-worldly.