Martin Bergström on Flora Hysterica II

We talked to the artist behind the new Flora Hysterica II collection. Read more about how Martin Bergström works with meticulous accuracy in his works and about the inspiration behind it.

Martin Bergström

In this follow-up collection, we continue to dive deeper into Martin Bergström's thousandfold herbarium. As the name suggests, the collection is a continuation of and a development of the five wallpapers in the Flora Hysterica collection that came a couple of years ago. Flora Hysterica II is Flora Hysterica elevated in two; there are fifteen new motifs with an updated luster throughout the collection, the images are heavier and more dynamic, and there is a greater focus on the flowers and details of the dried plants.

Martin moves in two parallel artistic dimensions simultaneously; the sweeping emotional and the meticulous, careful super-detailed. Thanks to the works' enormous richness of detail, the images can be enlarged to very large formats, and thus have a dramatic impact on a room. The flowers from the 19th century are captured using a time-consuming analog scanning technology. 

– It is fantastic that the small root systems remain after 200 years, says Martin.

Can you tell us a little about the inspiration behind the collection?

– Time goes by but the flowers remain.
It started with a collection of herbarium plants from the 19th century. Several thousand plants.
How time has stood in the sheets of these pressed flowers. A collection that I wanted to put into practice.
Leaf nerves, roots and colored petals that have survived for almost two hundred years.
It paved the way for Flora Hysterica.
I wanted to create something beautiful out of these plants. Show respect for those who picked and pressed. Something that can last at least as many hundreds of years.

Where do you get your inspiration? Is there anything special in nature that inspires you?

– Inspiration is available in combinations. How different things are combined.
The more I study and read about nature, the more I discover how little I know. It inspires me.

What do you like most about your artistic work?

– Create worlds.

Each motif corresponds to a specific nature site, feel free to tell us about one of the motifs!

– Flora Hysterica are my gardens. Places to dream away in.

Rhizome – framed print from the Flora Hysterica II collection

Describe your collection in 3 words.

– Poetic, strange and dreamy.

What does your creative work process look like?

– Hours after hours of layers upon layers of paint baths drying. Flowers that are glued and combined.
Collage and layers upon layers of color membranes.
Works with a scanning technology that makes it possible to enlarge the plants extremely.

Do you have a personal motto you live by?

– Put my soul into what I do.

Plateau – canvas print from the Flora Hysterica II collection

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Preserve the memory of the garden and summer when autumn comes - take the garden indoors!

The works in Flora Hysterica II are - unlike the first collection - in addition to wallpaper also as posters, canvas and framed painting. If you do not have the opportunity to redo an entire wall, you can now get a Martin Bergström as a canvas or posters on the wall at home.

See the entire collection here and also take part in the creative process in the film below.