Somewhere in the rows of blossoming tubs containing hundreds of thousands of $5 plushy flowers, friends Sarah Martinuz and Brianna Beckett excitedly pluck their next arrangement.
The pair arrived at Australian-born artist Cj Hendry’s first Australian Flower Market art installation on Friday in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden at the crack of dawn. And for good reason: the line quadrupled within the three hours they waited to see the installation.
“We got here at 7.30 this morning … entry opened at 10,” Martinuz says. “The line was probably only 100 metres long [when we got here], and then by the end of it, it had moved around on itself about four times.”
Hendry, who is best known for her hyperrealistic drawings and large immersive installations, says her famous Flower Market concept was inspired by the experience of wandering through a flower market and “the chaos, the colour, the act of choosing something personal”.
“I liked the idea of taking something traditionally small and delicate and blowing it out to an absurd scale. I’m always interested in creating spaces that feel playful and accessible rather than overly serious,” Hendry says.
It’s the first time the Brooklyn-based artist has brought her globally acclaimed Flower Market concept to Australia after the success of previous iterations in New York, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong. It is expected to welcome over 35,000 visitors over three days.
“Flowers are universal — everyone has some kind of connection to them. I liked the idea that people could physically build something of their own within the installation and leave with a small piece of the experience. That balance between spectacle and personal interaction is something I’m always chasing in my work.
“People are stressed and tired. I want people to arrive as they are, enjoy the absurd amount of flowers and colour on scale, without this huge exclusionary barrier to entry. People can take a flower home for free or stay and play to put together their own bunch of flowers that aren’t going to die in five to seven days.”
Sausage dogs and toddlers were among the crowds taking in the installation that Pam Hendry, Cj’s sister, also helped create. When this masthead finds Pam in the rows of felt flowers, she is smiling for selfies with fans – and writing a letter of absence for a primary-school-aged girl with a Sharpie.
“This is by far the biggest Flower Market Cj has done … this tent is just huge. I think it’s 90 metres by 50. It’s larger than an Olympic-sized swimming pool,” Pam Hendry says.
In the line snaking around the outside of the tent, mother and daughter Barbara and Alana Lazzarini have been lining up for the market for more than an hour. “We’re getting closer, and I know it’ll be worth it,” says Barbara.
Hendry says speaking to people who wait hours to experience her art feels “incredibly surreal”.
“You spend so much time making work in your own head or in a studio, so seeing people connect with it in real life — and being willing to wait for hours to experience it — is something I never take for granted. I think people are craving experiences that feel joyful, immersive and a little escapist right now.”
Cj Hendry x Pandora Flower Markets is at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden until Sunday, May 17.
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Kayla Olaya is a culture reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
