Artwork-
Alive with 13,000 ‘floating’ orchids, this is a garden like no other– created by teamLab-
The following written content by Dan Hodge, Amanda Sealy,
Patience. Understanding. Tranquility. This is what Tokyo-based “ultra-technologists” teamLab wants visitors to experience when they enter its new artwork, entitled “Floating Flower Garden; Flowers and I are of the Same Root, the Garden and I are One.”
But this immersive installation marks a departure for the world-renowned collective, which is known for colliding technology and art through interactive LEDs, projections and soundscapes. Here, it is the natural, rather than the digital, that leaves visitors spellbound
Unveiled over the summer, the work is made up of over 13,000 living orchids. Suspended from the ceiling, they grow along near-invisible wires to give the impression they are floating in mid-air.
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okQ6hAu6YAo Once you approach the curtain of orchids, however, teamLab's signature magic begins to take shape. Triggered by sensors, the flowers slowly start to rise up, allowing you to enter the space, before descending again behind you.
“We are using real living orchids, but behind them are so many technologies,” explains Takeshi Kudo, communications director at teamLab.
“The main concept is still not changed: We try to bring people inside our installations.”
Enveloped in flowers
While the artwork appears completely overrun with flowers, as they float up they create new spaces for visitors to explore. Because of this, people are able to freely wander around the installation — albeit at a pace dictated by the flowers themselves.
“The garden starts to make a space for humans… But they are moving super slowly, so you have to adjust your time to the garden’s,” explains Kudo.
For Kudo and the teamLab collective, which comprises artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects, orchids were the perfect flower for the exhibition. Evolved to grow without soil, they symbolize a resilience and adaptability that the art collective hopes to explore through the artwork.
For Kudo and the teamLab collective, which comprises artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects, orchids were the perfect flower for the exhibition. Evolved to grow without soil, they symbolize a resilience and adaptability that the art collective hopes to explore through the artwork.
The exhibit comes into its own when you halt in the center of the space, the floating plants slowly closing in around you. Enveloped by a mirrored floor, light pouring from the ceiling, the plants’ aromas and composer Hideaki Takahashi’s otherworldly soundscape, it’s a satisfying — and almost hallucinogenic — assault on the senses. Read more from Cable News.
Here’s another exhibit by teamLab entitled Crystal Universe:
