FLORID - micro flora in the kitchen garden http://www.roundhousedesign.com

Extending the long and glorious history of artists and artisans working with flowers and plants as decorative motifs, Rob Kesseler reveals a hidden world lying beyond the scope of the human eye. Florid serves up an exuberant array of porcelain and china decorated with microscopic samples from plants. Enamel prints of pollen grains and seeds float across the surface of a series of Royal Crown Derby vases like exquisite jewels. Multi-colour micro-cellular plant sections adorn a new collection of irregularly shaped porcelain tableware from the renowned Portuguese manufacturer, Vista Alegre Atlantis. Like pollen and seeds blown on the wind, these ceramic objects settle on the shelves and spread across the cool and elegant bespoke surfaces in the Roundhouse showroom celebrating the relationship between plants and the craftsmanship of fine cuisine. The work revels in our passions for all things botanical and the desire to celebrate this on the artefacts that inhabit our homes. Florid mixes art and science to create unexpected experiences, the perfect accompaniment for a ‘gastro science déjeuner sur l’herbe’.

Rob Kesseler is an innovative British artist and designer who makes exquisite contemporary work through the application of the latest technology to traditional materials. Throughout his career he has broken boundaries, and is well-known for exhibiting art work in non-art venues.
He is Professor of Ceramic Art & Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and research fellow at the Gulbenkian Science Institute in Portugal. In 2001 he was awarded a three year fellowship from NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), to work with microscopic plant material in the herbarium at Kew. In 2006 he was elected as a fellow of the Linnean Society and in 2009 as a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Over the past ten years he has worked in collaboration with botanical scientists at Kew, where he has created an extensive collection of images derived from microscopic plant material: pollen, seeds, leaves, wood and fruit that lie somewhere between science and symbolism. The images have subsequently been used for a wide range of projects in a diverse range of media, from porcelain tableware to architectural glass.

Roundhouse, is delighted to host this exciting exhibition in their Wigmore St showroom during the London Design Festival as part of their commitment to supporting the best of British design.