Click here, or on the image above, to see a brief video excerpt from Madame Curie.
Jennifer Steinkamp, whose video installations are reminiscent of the work of Pipilotti Rist, has created a first class video installation piece with this homage to Marie Curie, who in her spare time was an avid gardener. As Steinkamp notes of this endlessly looping video, which has been screened at numerous venues, and just finished up a three month run at The Sheldon Museum of Art here at UNL (it closed September 9th, 2012), the work “is inspired by [my] recent research into atomic energy, atomic explosions, and the effects of these forces on nature. Marie Curie was the recipient of two Nobel Prizes for creating the theory of radioactivity, and discovering radium and polonium. She was also an avid gardener and lover of flowers. An enveloping panoramic work, the new piece activates a field of moving flowers and flowering trees [. . .] Flowers rendered realistically for this new work include marsh marigolds, may flower, chestnut blooms, and hop plants, among many others drawn from a list of over 40 plants mentioned in Marie Curie’s biography written by her daughter, Eve Curie.”
Tags: Jennifer Steinkamp, Madame Curie, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Sheldon Museum of Art, Video Art
