Seed Beds
Seed Beds
In these projects I am attempting to get into plant time and space.
The first iteration of my growing projects titled Seed Beds was made during the Covid – 19 lockdown in response to cultural references that referred to beds, bedrooms, isolation and exile made in, on and around my veg bed and patio. The Seed Beds projects were made quickly and spontaneously over a 3 month period, often instigated by teaching workshops.
I couldn’t go anywhere, I couldn’t go crawling in the hills so I started an ‘artists residency’ in my front garden (patio)… The residency was called – Seed Beds The idea for the project was to connect my veg bed (+ patio) ‘A’ with cultural references to beds, bedrooms, isolation and exile ‘B’ to make creative responses ‘C’ A + B = C The project was conceived the weekend before the UK went into lockdown, 22nd March 2020, my late fathers 81st birthday..it is dedicated to my mum Jill, who spends a lot of time in her garden and who supports, nurtures and inspires me and my art..
After an afternoon of one to one online tutorials with students in their bedrooms, when the University had almost completely shut its doors, on a walk afterwards I began to think up a list of as many cultural references to beds, bedrooms, isolation and exile as I could, when I got home I posted a call out on Facebook for more references and I was inundated..then I asked students, relatives, friends and colleagues..and so the list grew and is still growing.
In preparation for the lockdown I thought I would do something I have never done before – grow veg – from seed. Me and my partner Ash installed a pre- fabricated veg bed on my patio…with the mindset – if anything grows it will be a miracle.
