Bend it like pollen

Abstract

An artist who has had to learn how to use a scanning electron microscope to help create his images now has some of his works on public show in London. As part of Kew Gardens' Go Wild festival, Rob Kessler has on display several images inspired by the remarkable twists and turns in the shape of pollen grains from different plant species collected by the artist from specimens growing in the gardens' cornfield last summer. Kessler was awarded a three-year grant to work with Madeline Harley at the Micromorphology Unit at Kew. The remarkable shapes of pollen grains reveal important diagnostic features of plants used by scientists. They provide valuable evidence about the evolution of plants and relationships between species. Kessler has produced these images to highlight remarkable structures not usually visible to the naked eye. Pollen studies also contribute to other areas of research including, for example, commercial pollination in crop production and the identification of plant species used in medicines. The study of pollen is also valuable to other activities including honey manufacture, forensics, the oil industry and bee keeping. For his artwork, Kessler captured images with the scanning electron microscope and manipulated them using computer graphics. The results are bold, colourful images screenprinted onto transparent banners strung between trees at Kew, making a powerful metaphor for some of the pollen grains blowing around for real.View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload Hi-res image Download (PPT)