Pollen Price on Nature, Whimsy, and Art

After pushing past frantic students and hordes of tourists in front of The Harvard Coop, we are greeted by a whimsical window display — dried flowers, book sculptures, and Greek-esque statue heads strategically accentuate the space.

The installation, “For the Love of Nature and Literature,” was curated by The Coop’s artist-in-residence, Pollen Price. She joins our Zoom call from her one-room cabin in an Oregon-based eco-village. Struck by the layers of patterned textiles in the background and Price’s own asymmetrical pink hairstyle, we feel her artistic energy emanating through the screen.

A spirited person by nature, Price’s artistic journey does not disappoint. She has explored many different art forms: from music, to painting, and even influencing. Right now, she works primarily with flowers, which appear across her Instagram page, website, and within the Coop exhibit.

Price asks questions of nature to guide her art, even pulling from the branches and moss right outside her door. “I find nature to be a really wonderful collaborator. She always has an excess of something that she’s like, yes, do something with this,” she says.

Additionally, Price credits some of her inspiration to fairies, whom she says she has been talking to for five years. “I do find fairies to be pretty whimsical, in that they can be beautiful and fun, but they can also be a little terrifying and mischievous. I do think there’s pieces of that in me,” Price says. It is through fairies and other spiritual beings that she finds her artistic whimsy, referring to herself as a “witchy woo woo kind of girly.”

The playful quality that Price describes is apparent in her artistic process. For example, she considers the intricately folded books throughout the exhibit, recovered from sale racks and book dumps, as collaborators. “I talk with all collaborators, whether they are organic or sentient or not,” she says. “The books were so excited to have been rescued.”

Along with her recent installation, “For Love of Nature and Literature,” Price will continue to pursue her art at The Coop in different mediums. Each display will have a natural element reflective of the changing season, building on the previous installation's structure.

Price installed the piece entirely within the windows of The Coop, which gave the installation a performance art aspect — viewers were given the opportunity to appreciate the process of creation, as well as enjoy the final product.

Drawing on her past experiences performing live music, Price wants her art to enhance interaction with passersby. While working in the windows, people could ask questions of the artist while she was mid-creation.

“It feels really natural for me to be able to interact with people and talk about what's happening here, to share upcoming opportunities and generally, just to bring a little bit more cultural interaction to The Coop,” she says.

Adrian M. Gill, the Chief Marketing and Brand Officer at The Coop, confirms that people are drawn to the installation — they are curious about its story and the artist behind it. “Pollen always comes in and she’s looking for reactions, both from ourselves, but also people who stop her as she's working in the window,” he says. “It’s almost like a live exhibit being created so that call and response, I think, is very important to her.”

Price is not only concerned with the live experience of creating the installation, but also seeks to elicit curiosity throughout the exhibit’s lifespan. She aims to share the artistic whimsy in her life with her audience.

“I want to bring in things that are attractive and fun and interesting and that do provide little breaks of peace or whatever it is that students need as an alternate in a third space, like a bookstore,” Price says.