San José Museum of Art

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Hortus Contemplatonis Nature Morte

  • An outdoor space featuring two panels of vertical trellises with a planter box in the center which is placed over a puddle of water. There are green leaves in the foreground, and the rest of plants are in shadows.

    Shirley Alexandra Watts, Hortus Contemplatonis Nature Morte, 2003; Mixed media installation. 

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    Shirley Alexandra Watts’s mixed-media installation Hortus Contemplationis / Nature Morte was on view in the Cathedral Sculpture Court at SJMA. The site-specific installation is Watts’s contemporary interpretation of the hortus contemplationis, or garden of reflection, the space where earth and sky converge with the mass of a building.

    Sponsors

    • American Soil Products
    • Bamboo Giant Nursery
    • Bay Area Tire Recycling
    • Hortus Contemplationis / Nature Morte
    • Counter Production
    • Plouf Restaurant