As part of Jaeger-LeCoultre's Made of Makers program to celebrate the design of the Reverso and continuing to expand its cultural universe, Maison Jaeger-LeCoultre announces a new collaboration with Brendi Wedinger, a Los Angeles-based multimedia artist renowned for her work in 3D digital art, sculpture and floristry.
Expanding the dialogue between watchmaking and the arts
Through a series of collaborations with artists, designers, and artisans from disciplines other than watchmaking, Made of Makers explores and extends the dialogue that naturally exists between watchmaking and art. The program focuses on artists who share Jaeger-LeCoultre's values of creativity, expertise, and precision, with nature at its heart, exploring new forms of artistic expression through different and often unexpected materials and media. Like the watchmakers of the Grande Maison, these artists and innovators have a deep respect for the past, which forms their creative foundation and a springboard for their avant-garde work. This year, Jaeger-LeCoultre further explores the world of contemporary art with an unexpected new collaboration.
A distinctive artistic vision uniting nature with technology
Los Angeles-based Brendi Wedinger is a multidisciplinary artist and designer whose three-dimensional digital artworks blur the line between real life and fantasy. Drawing inspiration from nature—with an emphasis on biodiversity, sustainability, and renewal, and a particular love of flowers—she combines diverse elements to form a new and surreal visual reality that is almost tangible, sometimes abstract, often highly sculptural, and always emotionally captivating.
While the virtual world of Brendi Wedinger's art and the technical tools used to create it seem the antithesis of the organic world she depicts, a strong affinity with traditional craftsmanship underlies her creative process. Rather than using a computer program to design the work from the start, I always start by using technical tools to hand-sculpt the large three-dimensional elements, such as the petals of a flower, and hand-draw the finer details. Once this is done, I use a lot of mathematical equations to create textures, transparencies, and layering effects. “, she explains. “ What drew me to the digital medium is that it gives me more tools to play with and a greater scope for experimentation, so that my work becomes a more expressive homage to nature rather than a literal representation of it. »
New 3D artworks inspired by the flora of the Vallée de Joux
For each Made of Makers collaboration, Jaeger-LeCoultre commissions an original work, inviting the artist to express a theme of interest to the Maison through their craft. Given Brendi Wedinger's deep affinity with the natural world, it was only natural that the theme of the new work would be nature—one of Jaeger-LeCoultre's core values—and more specifically, flowers.
Like all members of Made of Makers, Brendi Wedinger spent time at Jaeger-LeCoultre's home in the Vallée de Joux, learning about the crafts of watchmaking and exploring the natural world surrounding the Manufacture, before beginning work on the commission. She combined elements from all aspects of this visit to create her new work—a series of three surreal flowers.
« Everything about this visit – from the wildflowers in the fields to the incredible complexity and minuscule scale of the watch components, to the patience and skill of all the artisans in the factory – felt like a romantic fantasy world, so far removed from the hectic pace of modern life. " explains Brendi Wedinger. " Besides the natural beauty of the valley, I was very inspired by the highly complicated watches and the unique details found within them. I wanted the flowers to be complex and unique, like the watches, with all the beauty and immensity of detail found in both. »
Each of the three creations is an idealized tribute to a variety of flowers found in the Vallée de Joux throughout the seasons, rather than to a particular species that exists in nature. Looking at each work more closely, you will see that each element is recognizable and resembles a natural flower, but I have remixed and layered the details to emphasize their surreal nature. " explains Brendi Wedinger. Another important element of the commission was that the flowers be rendered (digitally) in one of the precious metals used by Jaeger-LeCoultre, which creates a hyperrealistic illusion of the shadows and reflections created by the light falling on the polished gold, further amplifying the surreal effect. In creating this work, the artist 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 – adding subtle layers of tension and intrigue that heighten the emotional impact of each piece.
From nature to art… and back to nature
In a play on botanical tradition, the flowers were given official Latin names with formal English equivalents. Connecting them to the Maison's history, Jaeger-LeCoultre added an official name to each flower, paying homage to the Reverso's year of origin.
Thus, elements of poppy, Alpine pasqueflower, and grass of Parnassus were combined to create Flos Montis Fluit (Flowering Mountain Flower), known as the 1931 Golden Poppy. Poet's daffodil, red dead-nettle, and late spider orchid were blended to create Gemma Vallis (Jewel of the Valley), known as the 1931 Golden Orchid. For the third flower, water mint, pincushion flower, and alpine thistle were combined to create Rhapsodia Petalorum Alpinorum (Rhapsody of the Alpine Petals), known as the 1931 Golden Thistle.
To further blur the lines between the real and the surreal, Jaeger-LeCoultre commissioned a French plant geneticist to identify a flower closely related in shape to the 1931 Golden Orchid and create a hybrid exclusively for the Maison. Named the 1931 White Orchid, this flower is a natural, physical representation of Brendi Wedinger's artwork. Flowers—in both physical and virtual forms—will become part of Jaeger-LeCoultre's visual identity and will feature in a wide variety of future initiatives.
About Made of Makers
The Made of Makers program brings together a community of artists, designers, and artisans from diverse disciplines outside of watchmaking. Developing the dialogue between watchmaking and art, the program is founded on the fundamental principles that have always defined La Grande Maison: creativity, expertise, and precision. It is aimed at passionate and experienced creators who share the Maison's values and whose work explores new forms of expression through different and often unexpected materials and media. Each year, new works commissioned through the program enliven exhibitions organized by Jaeger-LeCoultre around the world, amplifying the chosen theme and creating new opportunities for the public to engage and take part in a broader conversation about art, craftsmanship, and design.
About Brendi Wedinger
Brendi Wedinger is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Los Angeles, California. She creates in the fields of 3D digital art, sculpture, and floristry. Her work aims to captivate the senses with its tactile and emotional nature and sits at an abstract midpoint between real life and fantasy. In her vibrant and imaginative works, you will find an impression of nature remixed into a new, surreal visual reality. Brendi Wedinger's work has appeared in numerous print and online publications, including Viewpoint, dezeen, Surface, designboom, and Notion magazine. Brendi Wedinger has exhibited internationally, including at Alcova/Milan Design Week 2022 in collaboration with furniture design studio Prowl, the Satellite art exhibition in Sydney, Australia, in 2022, and Kleureyck: Van Eyck's Colors in Design in Ghent, Belgium, in 2020.
Patrick Koune
