CalArts alumna Jennifer Steinkamp’s ‘Botanic’ screens in Times Square all month long. | Image: Ka-Man Tse for @TSqArts
All month long, artist and alumna Jennifer Steinkamp’s (Film/Video BFA 84) new installation Botanic takes over the screens in New York City’s Times Square from 11:57 pm to midnight as part of the Times Square Arts’ series Midnight Moment. The series is the largest coordinated effort by the area’s sign operators to display synchronized art or creative content on the electronic billboards on a nightly basis, briefly turning the well-lit commercial district into a temporary art gallery.
A description of Botanic from the Lehmann Maupin Gallery:
Botanic depicts a collection of flowering plants that are animated inside a framework that utilizes the outer edges of the video as a container. The flowers are blown by an unseen force, which causes the plants to collide with each other and the edges of the frame. With each collision, they break apart into a collection of seeds, twigs, leaves and petals. The animations loop forward and back, transitioning between breaking apart and coming back together. By placing the animations on multiple screens in Times Square, the container of the video expands to the space of the city. The imagery of nature contrasts against the man-made architecture.
Steinkamp, who teaches at UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts, has shown her digitally animated works worldwide, including Centro de Arte Contemporaneo de Malaga, Spain; Hammer Museum in Los Angeles; Istanbul Museum, Turkey; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas.
Tonight (May 12), the artist will be present for a viewing of Midnight Moment on the Broadway Plaza between 43rd and 44th streets.
Event Details
Jennifer Steinkamp: Botanic
May 1-31, 11:57 pm to midnight
Time Square, New York
Free