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Czech Garden Corner

The Czech Garden was officially opened on 9 June 1997 by Rt Hon Alan Clark, then MP for Kensington.
 

Situated at the junction of Notting Hill Gate and Palace Gardens Terrace, the lovely soft landscaping contrasts well with the curvaceous concrete walls of the Czech Embassy building and Václav Vokolek's superb "Haiku" stainless steel sculptures.

The driving force behind the work was the Notting Hill Improvement Group who encouraged a group of professionals to assist with the project.

The garden, maintained by the Embassy, is planted mainly with box, bamboo and conifers and there are two wooden benches. The dominant feature of the garden is a Haiku sculpture. The piece was designed and donated by the Czech poet and sculptor, Václav Vokolek and fabricated by Chekov Prague.

The sculpture is composed of three pieces of stainless steel set against the harshness of the concrete wall behind, with words cut into the metal. Some of the letters are sunk into the steel while others appear to be falling out with some on the floor amongst the greenery. They appear like open books spilling their contents. In fact the words are not random but are a Haiku. This is a traditional Japanese verse form composed of three short, unrhymed lines usually evoking an aspect of nature hence it is appropriate that the work is set into a garden. The Haiku became popular in the West in the 1950s particularly amongst the ‘Beat poets’. The poems often deal with everyday experiences and contain humour and surprise.

Václav Vokolek explained the meaning of his work with the following words: “By their content or more likely their statement, the above mentioned sculptures are breaths of air, reflections, echoes, hints, the ungraspable. After all, this is haiku”.

Czech Garden Corner

Czech Garden Corner

Brief CV of the Haiku sculpture author:

Poet, writer, artist and writer Václav Vokolek was born on January 1, 1947 in Děčín, as a son of writer Vladimír Vokolek's (1913-1988). He studied Elementary School and Middle School of Civil Engineering in the hometown, after graduation he studied two years of arts and Czech language at the Pedagogical Facultsy in Ústí nad Labem (he did not finish the studies). Since 1967 he worked as an administrator in Nelahozeves castle and then in the monastery Osek, from September 1968 to the end of 1969, he was an employee of the District Museum in Litvínov. Shortly he lived in Jaroměř, 1971 he moved to Prague, where he worked as a restorer at art craft enterprise. Since 1975 he has been freelance. Since 1988 he lives in Tursko near Prague. In 1992-1993 he worked as editor of the Brno literary bimonthly Host, at the beginning of 1994 he was briefly employed as the editor of the review Context. In 1994 he was one of the founders of the publishing house Triad. Since 1995 he has been teaching art history at the Prague Higher School of professional journalism by the Archbishop Gymnasium. He co-founded the artistic community Omen. As an artist and book illustrator he belonged to groups and circle geometry.

Václav Vokolek

Václav Vokolek