On the trail of a pollen artwork – A long-term study from the MoMA in New York

Autor(en)

Martina Weber

Abstrakt

Dust is an excellent source of pollen for forensic investigations. Pollen grains are particularly well preserved in indoor samples and can remain intact for many years or decades. A long-term experiment launched in August 2015 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York demonstrates this preservation ability of pollen in an artful way. From January to March 2013, the MoMA presented the fascinating installation “Pollen from Hazelnut” by Wolfgang Laib, an artist with a preference for using natural materials such as rice, marble, milk, beeswax, and pollen. For his installation he collected hazel pollen manually for many years in southern Germany. The artwork was presented in the “Marron Atrium” and consisted of a 30 square meter installation of bright yellow pollen, that was sieved by the artist directly onto the floor. Since August 2015, dust samples taken from unfrequented areas in the Marron Atrium have been analysed. The results showed that Corylus (hazel) pollen was still present in strikingly high numbers (up to 16 %) in the dust samples. The amount of hazel pollen in the samples has remained more or less constant over the first three years. The wind pollinated species is generally rarely planted as an urban tree in New York and is not growing in the vicinity
of the museum. This eliminates the possibility of pollen entering the building from outside and from visitors’ footwear. A significant change was first observed in 2018 due to the replacement of the floor in the Marron Atrium.While the number of hazel pollen found in the dust samples of recent years was as expected, a remarkably high percentage of Quercus pollen in all samples raised a legitimate question: Was the source material for the artwork “Pollen from Hazelnut” pure hazel pollen? Pollen tells the whole story.

Organisation(en)

Department für Botanik und Biodiversitätsforschung

Seiten

44-45

Publikationsdatum

2024

ÖFOS 2012

106008 Botanik, 106049 Ultrastrukturforschung

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/on-the-trail-of-a-pollen-artwork--a-longterm-study-from-the-moma-in-new-york(eb15b47b-1986-467f-b546-861e319aecf1).html