A giant, 6-meter-tall pollen grain sculpture titled “Pollenarium” has landed near the River Thames in East London, offering visitors an insect-scale perspective of the surrounding urban landscape, according to My Modern Met. Created by British artist Luke Jerram in collaboration with American design studio Pneuhaus, the immersive artwork premiered at the Emerge East festival in Barking Riverside.
Inside the 6-Meter Geodesic Pollen Grain
The structure features a faceted surface built as a geodesic dome, housing a 6-meter interior covered by more than 100 glass lenses, as reported by My Modern Met. Each lens functions as a camera obscura, capturing a fragment of the exterior landscape and projecting it onto the curved interior walls. According to the project details, the resulting images appear upside down, with buildings leaning across the curved surface and plants blending into the sky to transform a familiar Thames-side view into a kaleidoscopic environment.
Barking Riverside as an Urban Habitat
The installation site was chosen because Barking Riverside functions as a critical local habitat, home to 10 distinct species of bees and more than 40 other types of invertebrates, including butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, and wasps, according to project disclosures. Luke Jerram designed the project to merge his ongoing exploration of visual scale with the microscopic reality of these local pollinators.
The Ecological Reality Behind the Artwork
Beneath the playful optical experience lies a pressing environmental concern regarding insect populations, citing data that shows a nearly 60% decline in flying insects across the United Kingdom over the past two decades. According to Luke Jerram, the primary goal of the installation is to make overlooked ecological issues visible by scaling a microscopic grain of pollen up to the size of a building.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is “Pollenarium”?
“Pollenarium” is an immersive art installation shaped like a giant pollen grain, created by British artist Luke Jerram and design studio Pneuhaus.
Where is the installation located?
The artwork is located at Barking Riverside by the River Thames in East London, according to My Modern Met.
How does the interior of the sculpture work?
The interior features more than 100 glass lenses acting as camera obscuras, projecting upside-down, distorted views of the outside landscape onto the dome’s walls.
What environmental issue does the project highlight?
The project draws attention to a roughly 60% drop in the population of flying insects across the UK over the last 20 years.
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