NYC's Times Square blossoms at midnight with artist's botanicals
UCLA faculty artist Jennifer Steinkamp brings nature into the heart of the city
An internationally exhibiting installation artist, UCLA Design Media Arts Professor Jennifer Steinkamp works with new media and video to explore ideas about architectural space, motion, and perception. Her three-minute animation piece, Botanic, will be presented in Times Square for the May edition of Times Square Arts' Midnight Moment series.
From 11:57 p.m. to midnight every night this month, locals and visitors from around the world packed into New York's Times Square have been treated to an astonishing sight appearing on giant electronic billboards lining five blocks: UCLA digital media artist Jennifer Steinkamp’s animation entitled "Botanic."
In the film by the UCLA professor of design media arts, thousands of bouquets and sprays of multi-hued flowers filling the huge screens are blown by an unseen force. As the flowers collide with each other and the edges of each frame, they break apart into a collection of seeds, twigs, leaves and petals, to the applause of wowed spectators.
Steinkamp's stunning work of art that draws a stark, contrast between nature in all its glory and the towering man-made architecture surrounding it is being presented as part of Midnight Moment, a monthly presentation by the Times Square Advertising Coalition and Times Square Arts.
"I'm in shock still because it's too amazing," says Steinkamp as she watches the animations loop forward and back, catching the flowers in the act of breaking up and coming back together. "I'm so happy and honored to be able to do this." — Anne Marie Burke, May 23, 2016
This article was originally published on the UCLA Newsroom website.