PINK- A Cherry Blossom Fantasy | Installations

Artist Statement

Pink

A Cherry Blossom Fantasy

Installation

Pink is a joyful, large scale, interactive and immersive installation.

It was created to bring spring into winter, the outdoors indoors. Light into the darkest part of the year and joy through the unexpected encounter with a riot of pink cherry blossoms!

It opened on Dec. 2nd, 2016 in the Kaplan Gallery at Visarts in Rockville and ran through January 15th, 2017.

It was very well received by both local and international press.

Pink a Cherry Blossom Fantasy is made up of five elements;

A 20 foot high video projection (18mins),
a circular video floor animation of a koi pond (3mins),
large-scale digital paintings 48"x88",
4 x 25 feet long silk rivers billowing in the wind
a tulle room with tissue paper cherry blossoms falling from the sky and collecting on the ground.

Liliane Blom believes play is underrated in modern society and puts great emphasis on joy and the ephemeral qualities of time. She describes her work as:

" Personal and poetic, rhythmic and layered, my work merges the world of sound and vision - the internal with the external. It focuses on borderlines ... those mostly invisible boundaries that separate me from you, us from them, reality from fantasy, childhood from adulthood, life from death, us from the natural world.

My installations are an attempt at immersing the viewer in my vision of the world. The essence lies in the interaction between the viewer and the artwork, which is why all my installations are immersive and interactive. They are multi-sensory experiences, that engage with sound/touch and light. Playful, they unapologetically appeal to our sense of wonder. And invite the viewer to come play."

Artist Statement

To see the "Pink" paintings click here

Photographs

I made the first rough sketch of this installation almost a decade ago and have since then been working towards its realization. I have been climbing trees early and late for the last three years to create the time-lapse for the video. I have photographed the blossoms from every angle in all weather and every time of day. But even before my first sketch, I had tried to find ways to hold on to this fleeting marvel. I photographed my daughter Sophie every year in the cherry blossoms starting at age 4 until she left for college. In 2005 the weather had been perfect, there were masses of fluffy blossoms on the ground and I tried to collect and dry them, I had laundry baskets filled with blossoms, but after six months they did not look so great, having turned gray and smelling like hay. So I decided to create them out of tissue paper, light as petals, and almost as delicate. The yards of silk, the thinnest and most delicate I could find, I dyed and turned into cascading rivers of blossoms.

This is my way to freeze time, to hold on the ephemeral, to share with you, my pink fantasy which comes around just once a year for a few brief days or weeks if we are lucky.

I invite you to meditate and find light and peace in the contemplation of the silk rivers; to dance in the petals, throw them in the air and become part of the fantasy. Life is brief just like a flower blooming, remember to enjoy it.

Press