Sleepy Roosevelt Island is not the typical locale for the season’s hottest art opening, but leave it to artist CJ Hendry to change that. Known for her photo-realistic drawings and playful, monumental installations, Hendry turned the southern tip of the island into a colorful faux “Flower Market” on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024.
Visitors were invited to meander through a 120-foot by 40-foot greenhouse filled with 100,000 plush flowers on the lawn of FDR Four Freedoms State Park. The space was adorned with pink peonies, bright sunflowers, blush-and lavender-hued dahlias, red and yellow roses, daffodils, lilies and more. Each guest got to pluck their first flower for free and had the chance to buy more for $5 each.
"We strive to build these fantastical, artificial environments to subvert viewer expectations,” says Hendry. “Obviously, the flowers we have created are plush; they’re not real, but by creating them on a grand scale, we can evoke a feeling beyond the singular. I enjoy bringing a childlike lens to my exhibitions, which is where the element of plush came from. You just see them and instinctually want to touch and hold them."
Hendry collaborated with Clé de Peau Beauté to create the exhibition, which was inspired by the botanicals used in the global beauty brand’s products—particularly the radiant lily used in Clé de Peau Beauté’s Serum (of which guests received a sample of if they purchased additional flowers). Other flowers were inspired by the Roosevelt family: yellow roses for Eleanor Roosevelt, tulips as a nod to their Dutch heritage, peonies since they were the signature flower of the Roosevelt farm.
Hendry also created 12 original drawings of the plush blooms for the exhibit, which were on display in the greenhouse alongside the flowers.
If guests couldn’t make it to Roosevelt Island, they had the chance to experience a taste of the flower power magic at the Nordstrom flagship on 57th Street in Manhattan, where a pop-up plush flower pushcart held court from September 16-22. Visitors also received a free plush radiant lily with any Clé de Peau Beauté purchase.
“When the architect Louis Kahn designed this memorial, he said, ‘The garden is somehow a personal kind of control of nature.’ 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,” says Hendry. “I hope Flower Market inspires joy and beauty well after the greenhouse is empty, every time we see flowers—plush or otherwise.”
