Développements polyphénol

July 2024, “Polyphenol developments” by Jolene Mok. In residence this summer, Hong Kong-based Mok Chung Ling Jolene continues her research on the properties of polyphenol, namely the organic plant molecules that she uses as ingredients for her montages and photographic creations.

In residence around the world for the last fifteen years, Jolene never tires of trying new things and conducting new experiments.  Describing herself as a ‘film maker’, she makes prints that are concocted through a process of manipulation and exchange with plants. Harvesting what we call weeds, such as nettles and dandelions, she uses natural chemical techniques to transform them into images that are embodied on film.

The artist focuses solely on weeds whose destiny is to be eliminated as quickly as possible. By harvesting them en masse, she gives them a chance to continue a new existence through their richness in chlorophyll. This powerful pigment, combined with other plant properties and mineral salts, allows nettles and dandelions to reveal themselves on film. These always random appearances make us believe in miracles, because as in the case of the Holy Shroud, the fabric that held Christ’s face, the material, sweat and blood, imprinted on the support. So there is indeed a passage from the living to the image, a symbolic metamorphosis that shows us how life takes its course.

Here, the long exchanges between the plant and the artist suggest that a mutual trust must have developed between the partners and that a dialogue between man and nature is still possible.