NYBG Orchid Dinner 2020 Collaboration:

NYBG Orchid Dinner Centerpiece Title: ‘The Sapling’ – 3 pod organically shaped light sculpture that stands approximately  60” tall with a “light canopy” of approximately 60” in diameter. 

The sculpture was inspired by very early stages of floral growth…. what makes this centerpiece so unique is its ability to stand on its own, much like how a small sapling can stand on its own, bearing the weight of its seedlings.  The sapling is an engineering feat of mother nature, just as our sapling is an engineering feat of proportion, scale, weight and balance.

The light canopy transitions through a series of colors, representative of early dawn to evening dim, and casts its colors on a ‘floating’ arrangement of white Anthurium Orchids. The floral arrangement, a collaboration between Alison Pickart and Cheri Mims of IXIA SF, was raised above the table top and hovered in the balance beneath our sapling.

White was chosen, the sum of all color, for all of our table dressings in an effort to represent the purity of nature and how it changes through time.

Our tablecloth was provided by Porter Teleo.  It is a custom white on white version of their pattern ‘Tangled’.  Our napkin rings, which were designed by Alison Pickart and fabricated by Sculptech, bare the same iridescent white finish as our sapling and grounded our fantastical table environment, as the earth grounds our sapling.

‘The Sapling’ is composed of a hollowed, cold cast, hammered bronze stem; the light pods are lightweight carbon fiber, with an iridescent automotive white finish on the exterior and a color saturating matte white finish on the interior.  The LED light strip is concealed within a resin ‘stamen’ inside the pod.  ‘The Sapling’ operates completely wirelessly by programming and by remote and has the ability to respond to both sound and movement.

The “Sapling’ development was a collaboration between Alison Pickart and Bob Standlee of Sculptech.