Robert Irwin: A garden is the most elaborate set of possibilities. I mean there is almost no limitation, in terms of the number of complexities, levels of richness because a garden exists in a world in constant change.
Narrator: That’s artist Robert Irwin himself, interviewed in the late 1990s as he was designing the garden.
Robert Irwin: The process of perception, which we kind of take for granted as if it’s given, is not given. Why something is architecture, why something is art. We build these boundaries to give ourselves a way of making decisions. And there are times when we have to revisit them and redefine them.
Narrator: What makes a garden a garden? At some point in his career, Robert Irwin faced a similar question about art. Exploring the nature of his discipline, his paintings became more and more spare. Finally, he reached a sort of end point. A moment he called “point zero.” And then suddenly, the world opened up again, everything rich with possibility. The Central Garden seems an exuberant expression of that moment of awareness, a realization of all things possible: “point infinity.”
[SFX: a tapestry of garden sounds]
Diana Winston: The world of the last 150-200 years is really an aberration in terms of human history. We are biologically suited to be in nature. And I think there’s a kind of relief that happens when we enter a natural environment, like: “oh, this is actually home,” not the busy city.
Ron Finley: Stop for a moment; really take in all the beauty that is surrounding you right now. Close your eyes. Hear the sounds of the water. The sounds of the birds. The sounds of the leaves in the trees. And realize—that you can take this with you, wherever you go.
Narrator: Is this garden about nature, perception, art? It’s really up to you.
