{"id":3162,"date":"2019-08-01T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T16:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/?p=3162"},"modified":"2019-08-08T14:51:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T18:51:11","slug":"enchanted-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kimcookhome.com\/kchblog\/enchanted-gardens\/","title":{"rendered":"Enchanted Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Designer Profile
by KIM COOK
for Casual Living <\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Harber greets you with a big warm handshake that sends\nhis headful of white curls dancing; a mischievous smile and twinkling eyes tell\nyou this is an artist for whom pretention or artifice are not in the\nvocabulary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which isn\u2019t to say he doesn\u2019t ever travel in swank circles \u2014\nhis arresting sculptures, made of bronze and steel and brass \u2014 grace the\ncourtyards and lawns of palaces in Bahrain, 5-star hotels in France, colleges\nin Cambridge and Oxford, and a plethora of private homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they\u2019re also on display on public housing and senior\ncenter properties, hospital grounds and even George Harrison\u2019s Tribute Garden\nin Chelsea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes his artwork so universally compelling? He turns\nmetal into vessels that harness the elements of light, fire and water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One piece, The Mantle, is made of hundreds of bronze petals,\neach one gilded on the inside, then all of them welded into a sphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s inspired by the concept that we live on this\nwafer-thin habitable crust of planet Earth,\u201d Harber says. \u201cThe iridescent warm\nglow of the gold symbolizes the energy of this extraordinary planet.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another interstellar piece called Dark Planet is made of dozens of smooth basalt pebbles affixed in perfect rows. \u201cIt\u2019s an almost menacing mass, rugged and simple, but it exudes a resolute energy,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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His workshop sits in the rolling English countryside of\nOxfordshire \u2014 in the shadow, perhaps unsurprisingly, of a Bronze Age hill fort.\nBut he\u2019s also got a new rooftop garden space adjoining the Christopher Peacock\nShowroom in New York\u2019s D&D Building (more on that later), and a\nby-appointment garden showcase in London\u2019s Eaton Square. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harber tried his hand at thatching, ceramics and\nmountaineering before settling on sculpture. Inspired by the night sky and\nkeenly interested in astronomy, he started with armillary sundials, those\niconic early measurement spheres. (Interesting side note: A few years ago,\nHarber discovered that he was a direct descendant of John Blagrave, a noted\nElizabethan-era mathematician and scientific instrument maker. Not only that,\nBlagrave spent most of his life living just 20 miles from where Harber\u2019s\nworkshop is in Oxfordshire.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe armillary sundial was my first love, in terms of\ncreating a physical sculpture. It was my first attempt at producing a piece of\nmetalwork which I was fortunate enough to sell, and so the story began. As\nsuch, the sphere has a very strong place in my heart. I was drawn to the\nelegance of the piece, and the marriage of art and science.\u201d He sold that first\none to actor Jeremy Irons, and over the years has made them in every size, for\ntiny cottage gardens to massive hotels and commercial projects, in steel, brass\nand bronze. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have a universal appeal, and I take great pleasure in\nwatching the interaction between the observer and this time-telling sculpture\nas it imparts its oracle-like wisdom.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing about outdoor sculptures is that they often\n\u2018fight\u2019 their location \u2014 they may be striking, but they clash with the\nlandscape. Harber\u2019s pieces do exactly the opposite; they complement rather than\ncompete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPossibly because I had no formal training, and it has taken\nme years to perceive myself as an artist, my work has always been subservient\nto its surroundings \u2014 an embellishment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another signature piece: his Torus, a gleaming circle of metal with a hole in the center, so highly polished that the environment in which it\u2019s placed \u2014 lawns, water, gardens and sky \u2014 are reflected perfectly on the surface. The startling and beautiful effect makes it seem the piece is transparent and solid at the same time \u2014 author Rich Hoffman described it fondly as \u201clike a wormhole through time and space.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Harber\u2019s got a funny story about an early version of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Torus, which is still one of my favorite pieces,\nevolved from a previous design, called the Portal, which many years ago I\ninstalled at a stunning villa on the banks of Lake Como, Italy. The setting was\nperfect, the client was overjoyed, the blue sky was reflected in the metal, as\nwas the burning hot Italian sun, resulting in a small dot of focused sunlight\nwhich created elegant, smoldering lines of ash on the tinder-dry leaves and\ngrass surrounding the sculpture. The hazard was averted by creating a large\ncircular sand bunker around the piece to \u2018better show the sculpture.\u2019 This\nnear-miss of daily arson meant that I had to redesign the Portal to remove any\nconcave surfaces and thus the Torus was born with its elegant convex distorting\nmirrored faces.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That brings us neatly around to the question of how Harber\nhandles the elements when designing and crafting the sculptures. Works are on\ndisplay in so many far-flung parts of the world, from the Middle Eastern desert\nto the dampish lawns of England, to snowbound middle America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe heat and sun of Lake Como was more than a challenge,\u201d\nhe says. \u201cThe sand-blasting winds of the Arab peninsula and Moscow with a\npredicted temperature of way below -30 degrees Celsius presented their own\ntechnical challenges.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harber\u2019s newest design is called the Alveare Wall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s inspired by the cells of a beehive, embellished by\nsubtle patterns such as a Fibonacci spiral,\u201d he says. \u201cThe combination of\nmirrored apertures and their reflections creates charming optical illusions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this year\u2019s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Harber and his team\ncreated Nyneve, a silicon bronze aerofoil piece shaped like a leaf, with the\nveined texture of tree bark. The sculpture, named after the Lady of the Lake of\nArthurian legend, sits in a quiet pond in the Savills. And in the water, Harber\nplaced 64 hinged leaf-like steel petals attached to a hidden, intricate\nelectronic system. The gilded petals float and flutter, creating ripples across\nthe surface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another exciting new project just unveiled in mid-May\nbrought Harber back to New York City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve finally taken the plunge and opened a roof terrace\nshow garden adorned with a selection of my sculptures, at the D&D\nBuilding,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity came out of Harber\u2019s friendship with kitchen\ndesigner Christopher Peacock, who has a showroom on the 5th floor of the\nD&D Building with a spacious terrace. Placed amidst planters bedecked with\nriver birch and tropicals created by noted New York landscape designer Janice\nParker, Harber\u2019s pieces will welcome visitors and showcase his artistry\nthroughout the seasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m constantly creating new designs. The real joy for me is\nto meet a client, designer, developer, architect or end user, and share with them\nthe passion and concept of something that can be tailored exclusively to their\nproject,\u201d Harber says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casual Living | August 2019<\/p>\n