Until recently, what we as artists could take from nature, and in particular botany, has been limited to what we can see with the naked eye, writes Rob Kesseler.
Yet by rekindling the relationship between art and science, we can foster a greater understanding through the exchange and sharing of knowledge and experience.
In November 2001 I was awarded a Fellowship from the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts (NESTA) to achieve just that. Working with Dr Madelaine Harley of the micromorphology unit at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, I am using optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopes, and studying how to best use them to generate imagery from plant material. As part of the process, I have been drawing upon the extensive collections at Kew, as well as collecting plant material such as pollen and stem sections from locations around the UK. The material collected will be closely examined at Kew and the images used to explore their potential for the development of new products and the creation of new art works to be made in a diverse range of materials associated with the decorative arts industries.
This summer, visitors to Kew will be able to see some of these results. For their summer festival ?Go Wild?, I am creating a selection of large banners of pollen imagery that will be suspended between trees close to where the pollen was collected. Kew is a very popular place but very few visitors are aware of the work that goes on behind closed doors. I see this project as an opportunity to increase public awareness to the garden?s scientific research, while also enhancing public enjoyment and understanding of plant diversity. It is not solely through the use of pioneering technology that my work at Kew aims to stand out from other collaborations between art and horticulture. The challenge is to develop a framework where fascination for this rich and complex subject can be expressed through the creation of objects and images that revisit what we think we know and examine it afresh. For example, the name ?willow pattern? is synonymous with English ceramics, having been the stock pattern of the majority of British potters for over 200 years. By photographing the patterns and structures within magnified images of willow leaves and stem sections from the collections in the anatomy labs at Kew, and pollen grains collected in Staffordshire, I aim to extend this tradition into the 21st century, creating a new ceramic landscape that explores this spectacular hidden world. The results can be seen in ?Beyond the Blue? at the Potteries Museum in Stoke on Trent from mid-April.
There remain differences in opinion about art in the scientific community, whether artists have the tools to inform and interpret science accurately. However, new microscopes with their ability to manipulate form and colour will increasingly force botanists to make more aesthetic decisions about the materials they present. So the technology is actually helping bring art, science and nature together, making the exchange of ideas between artists and scientists increasingly valid.
Robert Kesseler is NESTA Fellow at the Royal Botanical Gardens. e: kesselerob@aol.com.