Jennifer Steinkamp: Madame Curie

Jennifer Steinkamp’s multi-channel, synchronized video work, “Madame Curie,“ 2011, presents a sixty-foot wide projection of swirling, intertwined flowers that glide across the gallery wall in a seemingly endless procession. Inspired by Steinkamp’s research into atomic energy and explosions and the effects of these forces on nature, this recent work takes its name from the scientist Marie Curie (1867--1934), who is best known for receiving two Nobel Prizes for creating the theory of radioactivity and discovering the elements radium and polonium. Curie was also an avid gardener. Drawing from a list of over 40 flowering plants that appear in Curie’s biography, written by her daughter Eve, Steinkamp created realistic depictions of apple blossoms, daisies, fuschia, periwinkle, rambler rose, Virginia creeper, and wisteria, among others. Employing a complex computer algorithm, Madame Curie becomes an enveloping, panoramic world of interwoven branches and blossoms that strike a taut balance betw