We caught up with London-based artist Rebecca Louise Law to chat about her work and the flower installation she created here at Bikini Berlin. It was very interesting to delve deeper into the subject and to find out, for example, why the drying process of the flowers is part of her art. Read what else Rebecca had to say here – or click on the film to watch it for yourself.

The significance of the space is really important to me so walking into Bikini Berlin, the architecture, the history of the place, the post-war kind of feeling. 

Walking through, I looked at multiple spaces within the Bikini Berlin building. The one that kind of really stood out for me was the space that I have done the installation in, next to the monkeys.

And I think that it’s bringing the outside in and that whole feeling of nature indoors really is a true reflection on my work, also the people who shop here and use this space and the viewers, you know, the public and all of those influences, the German culture, the cultivation of flowers here, everything is considered when I choose a space and where I’m going to make my work.

For me, preservation and understanding the materials and keeping the flower alive is the most important thing. All of my installations have an intention to be lasting forever and I work with flowers like I would work with oil paints. And it is a respect for time and nature. Like the oil paint dries over time, and you have to respect it, it’s the same with flowers: they dry over time and you have to respect that. And given the right environment, these sculptures can last forever. 

So I’m quite simple in my titles and I generally want to say what it is. And for me, the simplicity of “Garten”, garden in English, is what it is. You know, these are the flowers that are available to us in Europe and in Germany and these are the collection of cultivated flowers that you have here today.

What’s important is that these flowers will fade and bleach with the sun and colour changes and slowly with the really, really old pieces, colour’s not important anymore. It’s about the form and the sculpture. And the artwork changes into a much more sculptural piece rather than a painting as well. So it’s quite interesting but I have lots of stages to the artwork.

Looking at my family history, my mother’s side is all painters and they always painted flowers. And then on my father’s side it’s all gardeners and there are over six generations of gardeners. So it must be in my blood! 

My art is about the human interaction with nature. It’s about people experiencing flowers in a controlled environment. It’s about flowers not being what you could imagine them to be and re-evaluating their worth.

So what you would normally throw into the bin at the end of a week, I can use as a material…for ever!

Thank you very much for talking to us, Rebecca.