Apart from coming to Adelaide for the football, during the AFL Gather Round, a night visit to the stunning glass sculptures at the Chihuly Nights Exhibition at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens was high on our list of things to see. When you see these beautiful and colourful glass sculptures by celebrated American artist Dale Chihuly you can’t help but be amazed at his creativity. How his sculptures were transported to Australia and placed in position without suffering any breakages leaves you in disbelief.

We arrived close to our set time and joined the queue at the gate.

Once inside the gardens we took the path towards the Bicentennial Conservatory, as we had been told there were a number of sculptures there in a separate exhibition, whereas the other locations around the gardens had stand alone ones. As we went we did come upon a couple of the individual pieces.

This one was particularly stunning. We could already understand why it was recommended to visit at night rather than during the daytime. This piece was called ‘The Sun’ 2014.

The conservatory certainly stood out at night too, being lit brilliantly in purple.

Once inside we came upon a variety of amazing sculptures blending in with the rainforest vegetation.

Here’s a close up of one of the pieces in the previous collection.

This one was difficult to photograph but in the end I managed to get a good shot.

Each group of sculptures offered something different.

The last group had three main pieces in it with a fruit and flowers theme.

On exiting the conservatory we made our way over a bridge to a nearby lake. On one side we saw a piece entitled ‘Fiori Boat’ reflected wonderfully in the water.

The display on the other side, ‘Walla Wallas’, was muted by comparison.

We continued to follow the paths, taking in each artwork as we went. In the nearby rotunda we saw this piece from 2001.

This one, ‘Lime and Lava Red Tower’, 2021, certainly stood out at night.

Near the restaurant area was this older artwork, ‘Polyvitro Chandelier’ created in 2006.

Many of the displays were near or in water we noticed. The arrangement of all the artworks within the botanic gardens had been well planned.

This very recent one, ‘Glacier Ice and Lapis Chandelier’ (2024), was in the Palm House.

Next up we came to the ‘Sapphire Star’ 2010.

The ‘Blue Polyvito Crystals’ floating the Main Lake were quite different.

Further along we came to the ‘Niijima Floats’

and the ‘Float Boat’ which also contained lots of the beautiful floating balls. Apparently this display was started in 2012 and added to over a period of seven years to what was on view.

Heading across the lawn we came to this lime tower

before reaching the Sunken Garden which was housing the ‘Ethereal Spring Persians’ 2022. According to our brochure this was the last of the displays.

From there we crossed back over a section of lawn towards ‘The Sun’ , which we had seen at the beginning of the evening, thinking we would find our way out.

After initially heading off in the wrong direction we eventually saw this sign pointing us in the right direction to the main gate.

How to conclude this post? The whole exhibition was totally brilliant. Chihuly’s artistic creativity was mind blowing and certainly well worth seeing. Apart from Adelaide his artworks have been featured in displays in London, Singapore and other cities within the USA.

Next post we move from culture to sport as we attend the football at the Adelaide Oval.