Events & Programs
August – September 2024
December 2023–Fall 2024
Ravi GuneWardena: Ikebana For Hollyhock House
Hollyhock House presents Ravi GuneWardena: Ikebana for Hollyhock House. The installation features striking new ikebana by GuneWardena, which reanimate the interiors of the Frank Lloyd Wright-described “garden house” through the Japanese art of flower arranging. The expressive arrangements introduce bold forms and textures with dried plant material, bringing nature indoors and further showcasing the influence of Japanese art and design on the site—built simultaneously with Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.
“The placement of an ikebana arrangement can inform and define the work itself. The light and space of Hollyhock House appear to have been designed with this art form in mind,” says GuneWardena.
The compositions reference the placement, mass, and scale of floral arrangements that Aline Barnsdall had in the house during the 1920s. GuneWardena also utilizes innovative materials that Sogetsu School founder Sofu Teshigahara embraced in his practice, dating back to the late 1920s. While ikebana is a centuries-old artform, the Sogetsu School, of which GuneWardena is a part, was established in 1927, challenging traditions of ikebana and celebrating freedom of individual expression. GuneWardena’s works active Wright’s gesamtkunstwerk interiors for Hollyhock House, adding new reference points in dialogue with the site’s holistic approach to art and architecture.
The exhibition is organized by Abbey Chamberlain Brach, Director & Curator at Hollyhock House.
June 20–September 28, 2024
Summer Seating: LAUN & BZIPPY at Hollyhock House
This summer, Hollyhock House welcomes visitors to take a seat and enjoy the south terrace as Aline Barnsdall and her daughter Betty did a century ago. The special installation features furnishings by LAUN and BZIPPY—innovative, women-led design practices here in Los Angeles.
While Frank Lloyd Wright designed furniture for Hollyhock House’s living and dining rooms, Barnsdall favored her own furnishings in other spaces, including the terraces and patios—rooms for outdoor living. Photographs from the 1920s show Aline, Betty, and friends using wrought iron and wicker furniture on the garden lawns. Betty and her playmates amused themselves on canopied swings and perched on poolside steps. Building on this legacy, LAUN and BZIPPY furnishings activate the south terrace, allowing visitors to engage with Wright’s garden house as Barnsdall had and as she wished the public would too in gifting her property to the City in 1927. Sinuous lines and striking geometries of the contemporary benches, chairs, and planter boxes create new points of reference with the architecture and indoor/outdoor living synonymous with Southern California.
The installation is curated by Leigh Wishner and debuted as part of Los Angeles Design Weekend.
Advance self-guided tour tickets are recommended.
