Pollen acting

By considering pollen as an independent artistic medium, Jonathan Bréchignac creates a new body of work that highlights the fluctuations of the modern world and their impact on nature.

For the artist, born in 1985, creation is a multisensory act, where the viewer’s appreciation is inherent to the environment of the work and the materials that compose it. Fascinated by natural phenomena that evoke the complexity of the world—his previous works notably capture the mineral and vegetal dimensions—the artist develops his practice by testing human understanding and its impact on nature.

For several years now, his creations have been situated at the crossroads of scientific discovery and myth: “My work is imbued with a ceremonial and symbolic aesthetic, as well as an influence from the scientific world. I like there to be a double meaning in the pieces I create. I also seek to maximise the sensory experience while cultivating an approach that is as unobtrusive as possible.

He seized this opportunity in the spring of 2024, which allowed him to explore the artistic potential of pollen, knowing that the region is full of conifers and that pollen is used in traditional Chinese medicine. “I found it interesting to explore this element common to our two civilisations. So I chose to come at the time when the string of gnarled pine trees that line the city are in bloom so that I could devote myself to this project,” he explains.

He recalls how the idea came to him: “One spring day in Provence, I climbed a pine tree and a thick cloud of yellow dust escaped from a branch. It reminded me that every year, for a short time, these trees cover everything around them with a thin layer of pollen. All it takes is a little rain for it to concentrate in places and form curious, bright yellow patterns that seem supernatural. This observation gave me the idea of collecting as much as possible and starting a project based on this material, which turned out to be a real treasure of nature. As I pursued my research, I discovered the strange world of pollen, with its fascinating physical, formal and semantic properties.” The artist and experimenter has thus developed a panorama of polymorphous works from this plant powder, bound together by a colour that is half honey, half sunshine, which glides across flat surfaces or is captured in glass volumes.

Entitled L’éclosion du temps (The Emergence of Time), this project consists of a series of sculptures and paintings that play with the natural properties of pollen. Multiplying ovoid shapes—echoing the very structure of pollen grains—and organic motifs drawn from nature, Jonathan Bréchignac combines the physical and symbolic aspects of the plant medium: undeniably linked to time and the cycle of life, they evoke ’the origin, propagation, journey and fragile balance of natural ecosystems.’

Nothing in his sculptures is static. The invitation to manipulate them, like hourglasses or gyroscopes, involves activating a bright yellow flow that defies gravity, thanks to metal structures. “The metal objects I have designed have one main function: they serve as a base for the form in which the pollen is enclosed. In addition to this, I wanted it to be possible to heat pine resin on burners in order to release the scent that is an integral part of the sculpture. In another case, these objects include a gyroscopic system that allows the shape containing the pollen to rotate on all axes. This accentuates the impression that this yellow powder is weightless. The gyroscope evokes both the navigation dials of ships that contributed to the exploration of the world and the gyroscopes used more recently in the conquest of space. It symbolises travel and discovery,” explains Jonathan Bréchignac.

On canvas, the artist revisits this aesthetic of the meanders observed in Provence. Here, pollen is a pigment in its own right, and the patterns it reveals are reminiscent of dripping, while invoking the energy of nature. Without taking a militant ecological stance, Jonathan Bréchignac demonstrates the power of an environmental subject that questions the changes and upheavals in the world, particularly those caused by modern society. •

photos : 3D printing, varnish and pine pollen, 20 x 12 x 11 cm, 2023 • Jonathan Bréchignac • Pine pollen June 24, Jonathan Bréchignac, pine pollen, acrylic and medium on canvas, 200 x 150 x 3 cm, 2024 • Pollen, Jonathan Bréchignac • Gyropollen, Jonathan Bréchignac, pine pollen, resin, steel, 2024 • Pine pollen June 24, Jonathan Bréchignac, pine pollen, acrylic and medium on canvas, 200 x 150 x 3 cm, 2024 • © Courtesy of the artist, Jonathan Bréchignac