Gilroy Gardens has become an outpost for exotic Chinese artists who have set up a village and kitchen while they do six weeks of work preparing for an international art exhibit that will be displayed at the park for six months.
“Lumination,” a wild and beautiful collection of lighted art pieces, is a tradition in China around their New Year’s celebrations. It’s expected to bring 200,000 people to see it in Gilroy. The exhibit will be open nightly from July 16-Aug.14. Then it will be seen Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from Aug. 16-Nov. 27. The show is expected provide an enormous boost in the city-owned park’s annual attendance of 400,000-450,000.
The exhibit is subtitled “Chinese Culture Celebrated in a Whole New Light,” and each light sculpture is made of thousands of small pieces including hand-crafted silk lanterns, porcelain plates and tiny glass bottles filled with colored water, all assembled into intricate, individual sculptures.
About 100 artisans created the frameworks in Zigong, China, and shipped them in giant containers to Gilroy, where a staff of 50 spends longs days assembling them.
They are staying in homes provided by the Gardens and eating in a dining room there. They brought their own chef, who is using local ingredients to create a Gilroy take on traditional Chinese food.
Project manager Luo Ji You, 25, is an art student charged with coordinating the exhibit. He has yet to see anything outside the Gardens after being here a week. Interpreter Liang Yi Wen did hit a spot she enjoyed—the Outlets. She found some good deals on products made in her homeland.
It’s impressive to watch the transformations from wire skeletons to colorful and bright landmarks and legends, including the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, Terracotta Warriors, a 120-foot-long, smoke-breathing dragon, the mythical hooved creature known as the qilin (pronounced chillin) and pandas playing in a bamboo forest. A water display will depict hundreds of big orange carp jumping over ornate Chinese gates.
The exhibit will include an artisan marketplace and a troupe of live performers from China. Gilroy Gardens also has converted one of its restaurants to offer Chinese food in honor of the exhibit.
“Lumination” has been presented at the Tampa Zoo and the Texas State Fair, but Gilroy is its only California showing. It will stretch along 26 acres.
There are already lanterns up on public walkways and the exhibit is impressive in the daylight, but it really comes alive at night, said the project manager.
General admission for ‘Lumination’ will be $25, or $20 each for a party of four. Or $15 with a day pass to the gardens. Package deals are available at gilroygardens.org/lumination.
