Heirloom Seeds: The Earth as Cradle
Materials: assorted heirloom seeds, cloth, adobe: topsoil, clay, hay, sand
In May of 2014 I get a call from Stacey Marie Garcia at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz and she says that there is a Cradle Exhibition coming through town and that it was right up my alley. She asked if I would be one of the participating artists. I say "Yes!" She said that there was a catch. I would have to make the sculpture in 3 hours. "Wow, okay" I say. Then she said there was a second catch. The sculpture was to be completed with the public as a collaboration during the museum's Cradle Project public event. After a moment I say, "Okay! I can do that."
So I began to dissect the idea of the cradle. A cradle holds something precious; something alive and growing. I thought of the earth, and how it holds you in death, how it holds new life, giving it the nutrients to grow vegetables and grain for food. "Okay" I say to myself, the Earth as Cradle. Now how to turn earth into sculpture? That was easy, I thought, humans have been doing that for centuries to make shelter, walls and even castles with adobe. Adobe is a combination of earth, clay and straw, dried for weeks to become strong.
To complete the cradle it needed to hold something precious, something that was a symbol for new life, hope and fragility. A seed, I thought. A seed cradled in the earth, but not just any seed. The most precious seeds to me are Heirloom Seeds because "heirloom" is simply a variety of plant that is pushed to the edge of commercial agriculture by companies like Monsanto, and the rich history and biodiversity these heirloom seeds give to us and our diet is being lost and worse; being pushed to extinction.
So I went to local farmers from around the Bay Area and collected endangered heirloom variety fruits and vegetables and brought them to the museum. I laid them out and asked the participants to taste these endangered foods. "But there is a catch!" I said to them. They couldn't eat the seeds.
I collected soil and clay from the San Lorenzo riverbed and dried straw and laid it out in the museum. I asked the young and older participants to mix the soils and straw, mixing and kneading the moist earth and clay to form them into the shape of the space between their hands. They looked like eggs.
I then asked that they take their endangered seed and place it in the center of the wet adobe earth. The eggs were then wrapped in a delicate cloth and placed into hand-formed nests to dry. During the next three weeks of the exhibition the eggs slowly dried and hardened on their pedestals. They were now hard as bricks, protecting the life inside.
Each of the "Heirloom Seeds: The Earth As Cradle" eggs hold within them a secret. In the very center is one endangered heirloom seed. These pods act as Seed Banks, preserving and honoring the life protected inside.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/santacruzmah/sets/72157640943756924/
http://www.gtweekly.com/index.php/santa-cruz-arts-entertainment-lifestyles/santa-cruz-arts-entertainment-/5450-cradles-of-change.html
Materials: assorted heirloom seeds, cloth, adobe: topsoil, clay, hay, sand
In May of 2014 I get a call from Stacey Marie Garcia at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz and she says that there is a Cradle Exhibition coming through town and that it was right up my alley. She asked if I would be one of the participating artists. I say "Yes!" She said that there was a catch. I would have to make the sculpture in 3 hours. "Wow, okay" I say. Then she said there was a second catch. The sculpture was to be completed with the public as a collaboration during the museum's Cradle Project public event. After a moment I say, "Okay! I can do that."
So I began to dissect the idea of the cradle. A cradle holds something precious; something alive and growing. I thought of the earth, and how it holds you in death, how it holds new life, giving it the nutrients to grow vegetables and grain for food. "Okay" I say to myself, the Earth as Cradle. Now how to turn earth into sculpture? That was easy, I thought, humans have been doing that for centuries to make shelter, walls and even castles with adobe. Adobe is a combination of earth, clay and straw, dried for weeks to become strong.
To complete the cradle it needed to hold something precious, something that was a symbol for new life, hope and fragility. A seed, I thought. A seed cradled in the earth, but not just any seed. The most precious seeds to me are Heirloom Seeds because "heirloom" is simply a variety of plant that is pushed to the edge of commercial agriculture by companies like Monsanto, and the rich history and biodiversity these heirloom seeds give to us and our diet is being lost and worse; being pushed to extinction.
So I went to local farmers from around the Bay Area and collected endangered heirloom variety fruits and vegetables and brought them to the museum. I laid them out and asked the participants to taste these endangered foods. "But there is a catch!" I said to them. They couldn't eat the seeds.
I collected soil and clay from the San Lorenzo riverbed and dried straw and laid it out in the museum. I asked the young and older participants to mix the soils and straw, mixing and kneading the moist earth and clay to form them into the shape of the space between their hands. They looked like eggs.
I then asked that they take their endangered seed and place it in the center of the wet adobe earth. The eggs were then wrapped in a delicate cloth and placed into hand-formed nests to dry. During the next three weeks of the exhibition the eggs slowly dried and hardened on their pedestals. They were now hard as bricks, protecting the life inside.
Each of the "Heirloom Seeds: The Earth As Cradle" eggs hold within them a secret. In the very center is one endangered heirloom seed. These pods act as Seed Banks, preserving and honoring the life protected inside.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/santacruzmah/sets/72157640943756924/
http://www.gtweekly.com/index.php/santa-cruz-arts-entertainment-lifestyles/santa-cruz-arts-entertainment-/5450-cradles-of-change.html
