On any fine sunshine day, we see the hovering butterflies and bees around the flowers. While we pay our attention to the beauty of these small creatures, they are perhaps busiest of our natural neighbors silently engaged in “mission survival”. This “mission survival” is nothing but pollination i.e. transferring pollen grains (the powdery particles) from male to female flowers which ultimately leads to fruit production. And, we all know that fruits are predecessors of next generation.
Pollens are tiny, shiny, and hardly visible but it has multiple roles in nature and human life. It even captures artist’s imagination presenting the bright magnificent hue of the natural world. A beautiful example can be drawn from German artist Wolfgang Laib’s work “Pollen from Hazelnut” in 2013 at Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA. The work mimicked a vivid yellow natural pollen field on the museum floor created with handpicked Hazelnut (Corylus spp.) pollens by the artist himself. The work was apparently simple, a bright yellow rectangle over another rectangle, but sensing that this yellow field carrying millions of life bearing particles from our natural world make you stunned. There were criticisms too, like, wasting of vital natural components, emphasis on the medium of creation, myth related to the artist etc. but nothing can undermine the very essence of this work “The eternal life”.
Courtesy: Studio and Garden, Altoon Sultan, February 4, 2013.
Collector: Rajasri Ray
