New England Botanic Garden prepares dazzling orchid display

Devin Bates, Spectrum News, January 29, 2024

"Patterns in Bloom" opens Feb. 10, and will feature more than 2,000 orchids arranged throughout their Tower Hill location, as well as more than 30 sculptures created by artist Molly Gambardella.

 

Gambardella’s work has been featured nationwide, and she was recently an artist in residence for the Ark Project at Yellowstone National Park. A primary focus of her work is using single-use plastic items to create artwork mimicking nature - in this case, orchids.

 

“I’ve been making work that's really around ecosystems and recognizing how everything is connected to everything else,” Gambardella said. “When I look at how things are being discarded or used or just defined as being this is a single use purpose, I just like to explore that and push those boundaries a little bit. I guess this really comes down to curiosity and playfulness.”