Times Square isn’t exactly New York’s most romantic place, but if you find yourself there this Valentine’s Day, you might notice a surprising amount of holiday-themed artwork. In addition to Rafaël Rozendaal’s Much Better Than This, a digitally animated kiss that takes over billboards at midnight each night this month (see Tino Sehgal and Rafaël Rozendaal Pucker Up in Time for Valentine’s Day), British artist Rebecca Louise Law has hung 16,000 freshly cut flowers in the Viacom building lobby, while a giant, interactive heart-shaped instrumental art piece from Brooklyn-based art company Stereotank has dropped down in Father Duffy Square.
The heart sculpture, titled HeartBeat, glows with a warm, pulsating light, and emits a deep heartbeat sound. It also features six built-in instruments such as the xylophone and South America’s tumbadora drum that passersbys can play, creating a cacophony of percussive sounds. “It’s like a melting pot of heartbeat sounds, just like New York City,” Sara Valente told DNAinfo. She created the piece with her husband Marcelo Ertorteguy through their company Sterotank. This is the seventh year the Times Square Arts and the Times Square Alliance have selected a special Valentine’s art installation; HeartBeat will be on view through March 8.
Law’s floral installation, “Flowers 2015: Outside In,” the first of art projects in the Viacom lobby, may be less overtly love-themed (the artist intends the piece to serve as a “tranquil space of nature; a buffer from the crazy”), but really: is there a more traditional Valentine’s Day gift than a bouquet of roses? In addition to including classically romantic flowers such as carnations, baby’s breath, and, yes, roses, “Flowers” is also most certainly a labor of love: Law needed 200 volunteers to install the piece last month. The fresh flowers will dry over three months, with live footage of the fading blooms playing on Times Square billboards during the duration of the piece.
Watch the installation of Flowers 2015:
For more art and love, see Damien Hirst Loves Valentine’s Day, How 8 Art World Power Couples Met and Fell In Love For Valentine’s Day, and The Best Romantic Artworks for Valentine’s Day.