Botanic

Jennifer Steinkamp

Lehmann Maupin

Times Square Arts brought Jennifer Steinkamp’s brief film Botanic to Times Square’s electronic billboards from 11:57pm to midnight every night in May, 2016. This project was a part of Midnight Moment, a monthly presentation by The Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts.  

Botanic was an animation consisting of flowering condolence plants floating inside a cubic framework. The flowers were blown by an unseen force, causing the plants to collide with each other and the edges of the frame. With each collision, they broke apart into a collection of seeds, twigs, leaves and petals. The animations looped 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 expanded to the space of the city, where the imagery of nature contrasted against the man-made architecture.

Photographs couretsy of Ka-Man Tse for @TSqArts.