Permanent Public artwork, 2010

We have created a panorama of artificial nature by transforming the atrium of the Esbjerg Polytechnic into a colorful garden environment. The work consists of enormous stylized waterlilies made of spray-painted steel and aluminum, placed in the rectangular courtyard with floor tiling like that of a pool. The courtyard is surrounded by the relatively new glass and concrete structure of the polytechnic.
You can look down from the first floor of the buildings around the courtyard onto an expanse of 12 large leaves with a flower in the middle. They float as if lying on the surface of water stretching between the floors of the building. If you are in the courtyard itself, you can sit down under the big leaves, which are gathered together into a great bouquet in the middle of the courtyard together with the colorful stems of the waterlily.
The upper surface of each single leaf is decorated with a circular pattern, which is repeated from leaf to leaf. On the underside and the stems, the green mingles with red and purple hues. In this way, the same colors are repeated in ever-changing new combinations.
The rectangular geometry of the building is interrupted by these stylized waterlilies, and a whole swathe of colors is introduced into the otherwise monochrome environment. By choosing the waterlily motif, we have combined nature and artificiality and transformed the classic waterlily motif to a piece of mechanical pop art. Our intention has been to create a work, which lightly and elegantly influences and alters the environment around it.

Commissioned by Euc Vest and The danish art foundation
Materials:Aluminium, steel, spraypainted, Concrete Tiles
Measurements: Variable
Site: Euc Vest Technical Gymnasium, Esbjerg
Preliminary works to Waterlilly, belongs to the collection of KØS- museum of art in public places.

Photo: Torben Petersen