Seed Beds
Seed Beds
In this project I am attempting to get into plant time and space.
The first iteration of the collective of 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 so I created an ‘artists residency’ in my front garden (patio)… a residency with no specific duration, because we didn’t know when the lockdown would be lifted. The idea for the projects was to connect my veg bed (+ patio) ‘A’ with cultural references to beds, bedrooms, isolation and exile ‘B’ to make creative responses ‘C’, so A + B = C. The first of the projects was conceived the weekend before the UK went into lockdown, 22nd March 2020, my late fathers 81st birthday, and it was 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 locked in their bedrooms, when the University had almost completely shut its doors, I went for a walk (for an hour) and 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. I then asked students, relatives, friends and colleagues..and so the list grew.
In preparation for the lockdown I thought I would do something I have never done before – grow veg – from seed. Me and my partner installed a pre- fabricated veg bed on my patio…with the mindset – if anything grows it will be a miracle.
The Seed Bed projects:
