CJ Hendry moves installation with 100,000 "plush flowers" overnight in New York

Australian artist CJ Hendry was forced to move her Flower Market installation of 100,000 "plush flowers" overnight from a New York City island to a Brooklyn warehouse due to overcrowding.

The Flower Market installation took place over a September weekend and was, at first, located on an embankment of the Louis Kahn-designed FDR Four Freedoms State Park memorial on Roosevelt Island.

Open from 13 to 15 September, the event was shut down by police on the second day due to overcrowding and was moved overnight to a studio in Brooklyn's Industry City.

New York-based CJ Hendry apologised for the closure in an Instagram reel posted to her page on 14 September, promising visitors "we're finding a new location, we're building a new exhibit overnight".

The installation was re-installed in a large, industrial space in Brooklyn's Industry City, where it "ran smoothly" over the course of 15 September, according to the New York Post.

"Industry City for Sunday was a great shift because it's this creative hub, and it gave the final day a different vibe – more industrial, more grounded, but still very much alive," Hendry told Dezeen.

Flower Market was originally designed for the FDR Four Freedoms State Park memorial, designed in 1974 by architect Louis Kahn and completed in 2012 to honour a 1941 State of the Union Address by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The installation was a partnership between Hendry, Japanese beauty brand Clé de Peau Beauté and the park's organising non-profit Four Freedoms Park Conservancy.

"When the architect Louis Kahn designed this memorial, he said, 'The garden is somehow a personal kind of control of nature,'" said Hendry.

"A lot of my work, and in this exhibition especially, is about manipulating my environments and building a space that takes participants out of their ordinary. I hope Flower Market inspires joy and beauty well after the greenhouse is empty, every time we see flowers – plush or otherwise."

The original installation consisted of an industrial greenhouse tent measuring 120 by 40 feet (36 by 12 metres) filled with boxes of "plush flowers" that guests were invited to "meander" through.

The "flowers" are made of metal and wiring covered with a soft, plush material and designed to resemble a range of flower species, including rose, lily, and peony.

The choice to create the flowers was driven by botanical ingredients used in Clé de Peau Beauté products, while others were informed by the Roosevelt family, such as a tulip to symbolise the family's Dutch heritage.

They were manufactured by the "biggest plush manufacturer in the world" according to the team.

Hendry's use of plush material is in line with her overarching work, which often features a "childhood aesthetic".

"She was just struck by the idea of taking these flowers and these delicate and natural elements and being able to increase the longevity and enjoy them for a long time," CJ Hendry studio director Dylon Harbottle told Dezeen.

"Mixed with the childhood aesthetic, we came up with plush and that was kind of the beginning of Flower Market."

The project was two or three years in the making, with Hendry eventually landing on a greenhouse concept.

"We had a few iterations before we landed on the greenhouse," said Harbottle. "Everything that we were discussing didn't hit that scale marker."

"As soon as CJ was like, 'We just have to go big or not do it at all' – that's how Flower Market was really born."

In its Industry City location, the boxes of flowers were spread out over the floor of the space, sans greenhouse.

CJ Hendry is New York-based Australian artist known for her hyper-realistic drawings and "engaging and thought-provoking" exhibitions.

Other large-scale installations in recent weeks include a giant inflatable astronaut for the MTV VMAS 2024 and a four-poster bed to honour Paris' interiors for the city's design week.

The photography is by CJ Hendry Studio unless otherwise stated

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