Professor Rob Kesseler

Biography

Rob Kesseler is a visual artist and Emeritus Professor of Arts, Design & Science at Central Saint Martins. As University Chair in Arts, Design & Science (2013-16) he initiated a series of events and opportunities for students drawing on his extensive links with the science community, including surgeon Roger Kneebone (Imperial College) and biologists Enrico Coen (John Innes Plant Science Centre) and Chris Hawes (Oxford Brookes Micro Imaging facility). As NESTA Fellow at Kew (2001-2004) he undertook research into a range of microscopy techniques from which he developed an extensive collection of images. These were exhibited in a solo exhibition at Kew and provided the basis for a series of award winning books on Pollen, Seeds and Fruit. In 2010, as Year of Bio-Diversity Fellow at the Gulbenkian Science Institute in Portugal, he worked with molecular biologists to create a collection of cellular images derived from microfine sections of local flora which have featured extensively in exhibitions in Portugal, USA, China and Chile. More recently he was partnered with Melina Schuh from the MRC in Cambridge as part of a major EU funded project that brought together four artists and scientists from ten scientific research centres across Europe. The resulting films and artworks were shown in Rome, Vienna, Heidelberg and London.

Rob was the first President of the ‘Science and the Arts Section’ of the British Science Association, and a Fellow of and Ambassador for the Royal Microscopical Society, where he is a member of the education and outreach committee.

His work reflects the way in which the natural world migrates into many aspects of our daily lives and seeks to reveal a micro cosmos of complex structures and ornamental patterns. Extending the long and illustrious history of artists working with flowers and plants, he seeks to reveal a hidden world lying beyond the scope of the human eye, producing work that lies somewhere between science and symbolism, in which the many complexities of representing plants are concentrated into mesmeric visual images and objects. Reflecting current environmental concerns he collaborated with Mathew Tucker for a BBC feature on seeds and climate change. His current research with Dr. Louise Hughes at Oxford Instruments uses Energy Dispersive Spectrometry to record pollutant particles on leaf samples.

Through extensive collaboration with scientists he is able to prepare all his own specimens in the lab and uses a range of complex microscopy processes to create multi-frame composite images of pollen, seeds and other internal plant organs. Using a sophisticated coordination of hand, eye and intuition, these are modified by the addition of many subtle layers of colour to reflect functional and structural characteristics to create intense large format photographs. The images form part of a body of work which explores many modes of representation, from spontaneous ink and dye drawings to cyanotypes. These in turn are translated into a wide range of contexts and media, ceramics, glass and textiles, video, and photography.