We are Flowers New York, NY 2014
Commissioned by Melissa
A field of suspended flowers fills the gallery, translating a familiar visual language into an inhabitable environment. Light, color, and repetition expand overhead, transforming the New York flagship gallery into a space that feels grown rather than built.
We Are Flowers extends the sensibility of Melissa’s collection into three dimensions, turning the interior into a dense, hanging landscape. Nature—long a point of reference in the studio’s work—becomes material here, with flowers operating simultaneously as ornament, surface, and spatial device.
More than twenty thousand translucent flowers assemble into a continuous canopy that floats above and within the gallery. The surface is supported by a custom-engineered Mylar net composed of over four thousand uniquely shaped pieces. Though digitally developed and precisely fabricated, the structural system recedes visually, allowing the floral field to read as light, abundant, and organic.
The logic of the net is intentionally softened by the placement of the flowers themselves. Rather than following a rigid pattern, petals are arranged in a loose, natural distribution, blending structure and ornament into a unified surface that recalls the irregular density of a flowering canopy. Color, overlap, and translucency produce subtle variation across the installation.
At key moments, the canopy dips into the space, intensifying enclosure and making the experience bodily and immersive. Visitors move beneath and alongside the hanging surface as light filters through the flowers, animating the gallery through motion and proximity.
Although advanced digital tools and fabrication techniques underpin the work, they remain intentionally concealed. The installation prioritizes enchantment over process, allowing the space to be experienced first as a suspended garden. As an extension of the We Are Flowers collection, the project balances precision and exuberance—bringing softness, color, and joy into the gallery and transforming retail into an immersive floral environment.
Photos: Alan Tansey
