Floral tribute

Swiss watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre has collaborated with artist Brendi Wedinger on a digital art collection that blends sculpture and floristry.

23 November 2023

Continuing to expand its cultural universe, Jaeger-LeCoultre announces the latest instalment in its Made of Makers program: a new collaboration with Brendi Wedinger, a Los Angeles-based multi-media artist recognised for her work in 3D digital arts, sculpture and floristry.

Expanding the dialogue between Watchmaking and the Arts, the program focuses on artists who share Jaeger-LeCoultre’s values of creativity, expertise and precision, with nature at its core, exploring new forms of artistic expression through different and often unexpected materials and media.

Based in Los Angeles, Brendi Wedinger is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer whose three-dimensional, digital artworks blur the boundary between real life and fantasy.

While the virtual world of Brendi Wedinger’s art and the technical tools employed to create it, appear to be the antithesis of the organic world that she portrays, a strong affinity with traditional craftsmanship underpins her creative process.

Jaeger-LeCoultre has collaborated with artist Brendi Wedinger in the latest instalment in its Made of Makers program.

Wedinger is a multi-media artist recognised for her work in 3D digital arts, sculpture and floristry.

Poet’s daffodil, red hemp nettle and late spider orchid are blended to create 1931 Golden Orchid.

Rhapsodia Petalorum Alpinorum, known as the 1931 Golden Thistle.

Flos Montis Fluit, known as the 1931 Golden Poppy.

The flowers have been rendered in one of the precious metals used at Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Inspired by flora

Each of the three creations is an idealised homage to a variety of flowers found in the Vallée de Joux throughout the changing seasons, rather than a particular species that exists in nature.

Another important element of the commission was that the flowers should be (digitally) rendered in one of the precious metals used at Jaeger-LeCoultre.

In creating this work, the artist has deliberately played with contrasting notions – the opposition between the organic softness of nature and the cold solidity of metal, the digital and the physical, the ephemeral and the static.

From nature to art and back

In a play on botanical tradition, the flowers have each been given official Latin names with formal English counterparts. Linking them back to the Maison’s history, Jaeger-LeCoultre has added an official name to each flower, which pays tribute to the Reverso’s year of origin.

Thus, elements of poppy, alpine pasque and grass of parnassus have been combined to create Flos Montis Fluit (Flower of the Mountain Flows), known as the 1931 Golden Poppy.

Poet’s daffodil, red hemp nettle and late spider orchid are blended to create Gemma Vallis (The Jewel of the Vallee), known as the 1931 Golden Orchid.

For the third flower, water mint, scabious and fringed pink have been combined to create Rhapsodia Petalorum Alpinorum (The Rhapsody of Alpine Petals), known as the 1931 Golden Thistle.

Further blurring the lines between the real and surreal, Jaeger-LeCoultre commissioned a French plant breeder to breed a hybrid exclusively for the Maison. Named the 1931 White Orchid, it is a natural and physical representation of Brendi Wedinger’s art piece.

The flowers – in both their physical and virtual forms – will become part of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s visual identity and seen in a wide variety of initiatives in the future.

jaeger-lecoultre.com
instagram.com/brendilw