Botanic: Jennifer Steinkamp

Wishing I had stopped to make a video of Botanic and wanting to find out a bit more about the Sculptures I saw in London I found this

It must have been a magical experience to see all of those videos in the centre of New York, I only wish the You Tube clip was slower and longer.

Here are some more videos of her work – mesmerising

 

There are lots more to enjoy on You Tube.

I will be looking out for more of her work. Here is a link to her website: Jennifer Steinkamp

and, from the website, here are the dates for more installations in London:

Sculpture in the City, 9^th Edition, 10 Fenchurch Avenue, London, United Kingdom, curated by Stella Ioannou
September 1 – September 30, 2019
November 1 – November 30, 2019
January 1 – January 31, 2020
March 1 – March 31, 2020

They are in my diary, although how many I will be able to get to, I don’t know.

I’d love to know what you think of this kind of art. Do you like it?

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120, Fenchurch Street

Hellooo!

Here we are again, this time on top of 120, Fenchurch Street – wow that sun was bright!

(see previous post about the Sky Garden at 20, Fenchurch St)

That is ‘The Gherkin’ in the background.

To get up to the roof garden at 120, you just turn up and queue. As people come out, more are let in – we only had a couple of people in front of us and didn’t have to wait at all. You go through an airport-style security scanner before getting into the lift.

This garden is open to the sky with native planting and it is much quieter and calmer than in the tropical lushness of the other garden.

I loved the play of light and shadows on the floor, walls and plants.

There are no restaurants there, but it is a perfect place to take a packed lunch as most of these people seemed to have done.

They were perched on the edge of the rather awkward looking water feature, more comfortable seating would be a bonus.

From this terrace you can see ‘The Walkie-Talkie’ building and look at where we had been just a few minutes ago – in the garden on top of that building.

so much to enjoy, looking in, looking up, looking through, looking out, with a few surreal reflections where the glass wall was high

and looking down and DOWN!

On the way out you pass under a vast ceiling covered with a moving video art installation

it is called Botanic and is a picture of slowly swirling flowers as if they are floating in a dark pool. It is part of Sculpture in the City.

and as we walked back to the tube station we spotted some more, this one with a very long title that makes very little sense to me, and is something to do with lava and volcanoes

and this

Bridging Home

which could be very witty …….hmmm. Perhaps I need to find out a bit more about them to appreciate them more.

Edit: I looked for more images and information about this piece. I wanted to see the piece up closer and from the inside. I found this which says the Footbridge was closed so that the piece was not vandalised. Grrr! So eventually it will be removed. I seem to have a whole load of thoughts and emotions swirling around about that. It would have been good to have had a video to experience this replica of a displaced home. I get the reference to migrants and displacement and the fact that the ‘home’ looks as if it has been just dropped uncomfortably out of context, I just wish it’s message could have been presented in a more accessible way.

Searching for all of the 21 sculptures and getting up close to them could be a nice focus for another visit to London.

I will end with a photo my son took just before we left The City.

Look up!

and went back to his house to spend a delightful weekend with him and his three girls, whilst their Mum was on a girly birthday celebration holiday.