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BBC Four interviewed artist Rob Kesseler on his work with flowers - find out more about his magnified pollen image, or see more images of his tulip.
 Which flower artworks do you most admire?
Floral art can range from botanical illustration, which might have a strong scientific focus, to something which is more expressive. Many of the greatest botanical works are very beautiful artworks as well. Then I'll look at Dutch flower painting and it's interesting how they'll put together a whole variety of flowers from different seasons, so there's an amusing side to that which is cultural manipulation of material. That manipulation by successive cultures and the spread of information through the sciences, through illustration, out into the public domain, in a way laid the foundations for British love of flowers and gardening. That interests me more than any particular artist.
What work were you doing at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew?
I collected pollen from flowers which I then photographed on a scanning electron microscope, which really is an impressive piece of kit. The level of detail on the surface of the pollen grains, which are all very diverse, is phenomenal. I coloured the pollen grains in Photoshop and printed them up on very large mesh banners. These were stretched between trees in the grounds. It was bringing the images back to their source in a way, and showing things which you can't see with the naked eye. I'm always interested in the way work is placed within a landscape, and how one ornaments the landscape.
What are you working on at this moment?
I'm writing a book about pollen with Madeline Harley which includes an essay about art and science and the relationship between the two. I think artistic interpretations of science are important because they put the work out to different domains and help people to see through artists' eyes what the scientists are working on. The immediate retinal response which is evoked by the strength of images of science and nature can lead you into looking and understanding at greater depth. These images of pollen, for example, are stunning. They do draw you in.
What inspires and influences your work?
I think as an artist one keeps searching and looking for how different things outside one's field can be brought in to take one's work into new directions. I think that's why I approached Kew, knowing there's a whole body of material there which only seemed to appear occasionally in scientific journals.
What are you planning to work on next?
I'm thinking about doing a collection of photographic paintings based on revealing some of the information held within Dutch flower paintings. Perhaps I'll do a pollen analysis of the flowers that are in the painting. It's about referencing and acknowledging the past, and how I can use that to inform a new collection of works.
This series of Painting Flowers looks at roses, tulips, sunflowers and lilies in art. Do you have any particular feelings about any or all of these flower types?
I've been taking quite a few photographs and doing sectional drawings of lilies over the past few months for the book. I used to see them as contemporary trophy flowers that are a nuisance because of the way they drop their pollen over the furniture. But now I've got a strong affection for them and it's through understanding and knowledge of how they work. If one pulls lilies apart you see that it's a brilliant piece of structural engineering.
Tulips are interesting sociologically and culturally in terms of the whole history of tulipmania. It's hard to see tulips without an awareness of that whole kind of cultural history and how they were tied up within the economy in different countries.
I haven't ventured into the field of sunflowers or roses. It's a big world - the more you know, you realise that you know even less. The field expands faster than you can ever learn about it!
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