writing on the project...

2013 has been a year of fits and starts for the Homage to the Seed Project. Sure to be memorable later on... much of it has been spent addressing an important relocation. Common human experience is the phenomenon of undertaking things that at the time can seem intensely demanding but later worth every minute of effort.

5 months house-hunting whilst doing a make-over at the home we were selling led to the eventual departure from the family home in late June, and now we're in limbo for a month before we move to the new residence.

The studio residency at Percolator gallery in Paddington, Brisbane concluded in March after the Exhibition 'From One Small Seed', with studio contents going to storage and focus on attending to necessary details of relocation. It was a smart move, even if a little unsettling. Painting, for me, is such a complete immersion it was easier not to paint during all this chaos then try dividing focus.

What is being gained is a comfortable, spacious, well situated home, a little further from the city than we've been used to, but close to a transport junction, good Public Library, Aquatic Centre, bike path along a creek, an environment centre where a friend volunteers on seed-saving... and easy shopping access.

This photo taken in 1902 is very close to where our house is now.

The earliest photo of the hamlet of Downfall Creek was taken in 1902. It was taken as a Hamilton family photo of Janie Hamilton, later Janie Wayper with her pony Silver and her dog. Fortunately for history it also shows much of the hamlet in the background. Downfall Creek was about 33 years old when the photo was taken from the present Burnie Brae Park. (Courtesy Hamilton Family)

Nearby is a community garden and large park plus local history Museum I noticed the other day which I'll visit soon. The city of Brisbane was settled in 1824 so its not a very old city... and I'm keen to learn more about where we will live.

From Wiki:

Prior to European settlement, the Brisbane area was inhabited by the Turrbal and Jagera people.^[6] They knew the area that is now the central business district as Mian-jin, meaning "place shaped as a spike".^[7]The Moreton Bay area was initially explored by Matthew Flinders. On 17 July 1799, Flinders landed at what is now known as Woody Point, which he named "Red Cliff Point" after the red-coloured cliffs visible from the bay.^[8] In 1823 Governor of New South Wales Thomas Brisbane instructed that a new northernpenal settlement be developed, and an exploration party led by John Oxley further explored Moreton Bay.^[9]

The suburb I'm moving to was settled in the late 1860's and known as Downfall Creek... at some point renamed Chermside... a pity really. Place names including geographical features can remind people of the landscape on which they're situated, and to my thinking are far more poetic than places names after prominent men. It was inspiring to read that some early settlers bought large areas of land and didn't parcel it up for housing. Parts of that land remain accessible to the public as green spaces today.  

Discovering this area is something I am really looking forward to as we establish home and I set up my new studio. Downfall Creek, where the Environment Centre is also located, has a bike path running beside it so that is a good starting place.

This map is fascinating...our street is just next to the area that was being offered as Five Mile Estate... obviously 5 miles from the heart of the city which is due south.

This lithograph would have been printed before 1898 which was the year Andrew Hamilton died. His son Thomas carried on the family business and the land sales.

This information was found here. Read about the Environment Centre.

With 17 days to go before we resettle I've been able to resume working on my book. In late 2010 I produced a 68 page book about the Homage to the Seed project which was launched at the end of the year long residency at Brisbane Botanic Gardens.

Since then Ive conducted three more residencies and have one in planning at the moment yet to be announced. With so much material now collated around this project a book is almost a necessity to synthesise the experience.

The recent pack up meant sorting through a great deal of material from the last 4 years of the project ... some reaching much further back where threads of the work began.

Images from a slideshow on the project have been a start to telling the story. This image below refers to the October 2011 residency at the UK's Kew Gardens Millennium Seedbank in West Sussex.

Shaping words and text for Homage to the Seed has been an ongoing process ... I'm glad to be making headway during this nomadic 'in-between' phase.

The challenge is to cover the story of seeds from the deep past right up to now... through the somewhat personal lens of the experiences I've had, individuals Ive met or ideas pondered. It is an artist's journal in word and image rather than a textbook on the history of seeds. 

Image from the May 2012 Residency at Brisbane's Institute for Molecular Bioscience collaborating with Plant Scientist Dr Joshue Mylne.

This is an exciting challenge ... stay tuned for more!

From one small seed ...

If I haven't mentioned the tumblr site before that I set up to coincide with the first International Fascination of Plants day on May 18th .... then this will link you to tumblr 'From one small seed' so you can view the range of material featured there.

Orange-Red Seeds of Iris foetidissima, Galeazza Garden

thetopsyturvybook:

'Impossible plants'

Well... this image below is really outside the category of seeds... but an interesting image nevertheless!

(via enivree)

sophiemunns:

Arabidopsis seeds - after pollination. Seed size is controlled by small RNA molecules inherited from a plant’s mother, a discovery from scientists at The University of Texas at Austin that has implications for agriculture and understanding plant evolution. Read more: http://web5.cns.utexas.edu/news/author/lclippard/

The Face of Autumn by H.R. Hatfield on Flickr.

A Seed Bank via Gardenista

http://gardenista.com/posts/seed-bank-heirlooms-in-petaluma

Image by Selket R. via Flickr.

                                                                           whatiseewhenirun:(Saga seeds) 

And one last thing ... The 3 part  KINGDOM OF PLANTS  series by David Attenborough has just finished showing on Australian TV. Filmed at Kew Gardens last year there are many highlights. An obvious one for me was being taken to the Millennium Seedbank to learn about their operations. Wolfgang Stuppy, whom I've posted on before here, was interviewed about the intention behind the MSB project. I was fortunate indeed to have him as my contact person when on residency at the MSB Oct 2011.

counting the inheritance...

'counting the inheritance' -close up.

'Counting the inheritance' is the title of a work from the recent show that I painted some time back. It seemed a fitting title to a work that was a gesture to the seed banking of australian species... and this image above is a section of that work. In the Lab there is considerable counting of one kind or another... weighing, measuring... data entries... processes that are all part of the work behind the scenes for the Seed lab. Counting the inheritance is also a play on that standard idea of what makes an inheritance -  it challenges ideas of what matters, what we want to leave behind... what is valuable in the first place.

In the recently published book ' Homage to the Seed' I included a section on the Seed Lab at Mt Coot-tha, part of the QLD 'Seeds for life' - UK Millennium Seed Bank joint project. These pages are from that book and may be read in a larger format by clicking on each image. This a tribute to the people I collaborated with around that project over the year!

See other posts for more information or alternatively you may email for details.

For the past 5 months I've been working from the studio below and I included this heart-felt thank you to my kind sponsor in the book!

Homage to the Seed residency show at Herbarium, Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha

The Herbarium at Mt Coot-tha was the setting for the December exhibition of the residency artwork in 'homage to the seed'.

ARTIST'S BOOK FOR SALE

The book contained material from across the year ... covering the role of the seed lab and the collaboration with Jason Halford from the lab.... as well as touching on various other aspects of public engagement carried out during the project. There was an overview on the ideas and passion behind the project going back many years and material was also included on the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity that  'homage to the seed' did in part respond to.  Journal pages as well as artworks were included in this book along with an essay written by Kevin Wilson, director of Artworkers Alliance (see end of post for essay).

The following piece is an overview of painting in 2010 during the residency written for the book.

OVERVIEW

fossil seeds

Eucalyptus seed capsule

seeds and pods of Leopard tree

fossil seeds

'and the world was made fruitful'

'and the world became bright'

'continuum'

'infinite'

'archaic, yet reverberating still I'

'archaic, yet reverberating still II'

'from the nothing the abundance'

Essay by Kevin Wilson on the exhibition:

EXHIBITION DECEMBER 3RD, 4TH, 5TH AT THE BRISBANE BOTANIC GARDENS, MT COOT-THA

Y O U   A R E   M O S T   W E L C O M E  T O   A T T E N D   T H I S   

U P C O M I N G   E V E N T  ! ! !

The residency is drawing to a close with the end of the year fast approaching ... this exhibition will take place next week over 3 days on the grounds of the Botanic Gardens at the Herbarium which is located just 30 metres on from the Administration building (where the Library is to be found).  See the invitation below!

The space is shared with the Annual Botanical Artist's Society of Qld's Botanica exhibition.... open daily from 10 am till 4 pm  ( 3pm on the Sunday!)

I will post the works from the show after it closes at the Website. All works will be for sale, along with a 68 page book (21 x 23 cm) I have produced on the  Homage to the Seed Project ($30)  and  several Postcard designs which will be available as well. For the wonderful bloggers who already asked if there would be a book available with journal images... this does contain 12 pages from my journal, a section on paintings, other visuals from the seed lab and so on. I have included pages on events from the year with a double page spread on the postcards from the blogosphere Mail-Art exhibition.

If you have any enquiries don't hesitate to email or  leave a comment which comes through my email anyway! I have not set up paypal... but once the show is concluded I can certainly address that if needs be.

book on the residency project

capturing a few moments at Mt Coot-tha...

... in a quiet corner of the Botanic Gardens a Mt Coot-tha around midday on Friday I did not pass a soul as I walked through a rainforested section of the gardens were sprinklers were playing in every direction and the sun was filtering through the overhead canopy making it such a cool, moist and quiet spot to wander after a very busy morning.

A spot that made me stop and gaze a while was this pond with lily pads and water flowing over some rocks into the pond. I took out my camera and clicked without worrying too much about angles and sunlight. And just now after downloading photos I'm reminded how for me the one's I might have thought quite poor actually have some redeeming features....as with this one above which to my mind is delightfully almost painterly.

I found this place mesmerising...the water, light, lush green and sound of water. 

Earlier on Friday Morning I met up with teachers and students from Cannon Hill State School for a session with 3 different classes from Grade 2, 3 and 4. All these children are involved with the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program which has been set up in their school...so my presentation about the Homage to the Seed project and my art work was not an unfamiliar topic for these children. 

We had a wonderful morning... 3 classes came through and spent time with me and were excellent  participants in discussion about why seeds are so important and what part they play in our lives and. I brought in all kinds of things to show them and it was a lively morning that was over before I knew it.

We covered a lot of ground in a short time and it was inspiring to watch the light bulbs going off... children making connection between the materials I had brought in, what they have been learning and the importance of saving seeds. When the question came up about their favourite seed we all agreed most of us are very keen on chocolate...a seed they were off to see the tropical rainforest in the Geodesic Dome where there is a cacao tree.

I was delighted to hear they have been learning quite a bit about local indigenous culture from an aboriginal Elder who has been visiting their school. Many of the children were familiar with symbols in art as a result of these sessions with the Elder ... which made it much easier to explain the work I have been doing with cross-sections of rainforest fruits and other seedpod forms that are somewhat abstracted  and hold considerable symbolic resonance. 

This was an audience of switched on minds!

I was able to share the last packets of Select Organic seeds I had with the children to take back to their school garden. These were sent from the lovely people at Eden Seeds for the Open Studio Week in July.

Alf Finch founder, in 1987, of Eden Seeds and now Select Organic.

“I am pleased to be able to offer this selection of the world’s finest certified organic seeds”.

Old Traditional Open Pollinated Seeds,
No hybrids & No GMOs, No chemical treatment,
World's Finest Certified Organic Seeds

We offer an extensive range of certified organic seeds, & many books as well. You can browse through our product catalogue & order online with our secure shopping-cart facility, or if you wish to phone or mail your order please see the details on our Contact Us page.

The other wonderful seed product I was able to share with the classes was also from the Studio Week. I was given a bag of these soap nuts by the people at www.gogreenathome.com.au and the co-convenor that week, Marilena, had been successfully using them for some time and could vouch for their success as a natural seed product that can replace the use of harsh washing detergents at home.

Soap Nuts - The magic of nature  -  (Sapindus Mukorossi)

How would you like a 100% natural cleaner that grows wild in the Himalayas and has been used for centuries in India, China and Nepal. It's even on supermarket shelves in Europe and it's cheaper than chemical alternatives.  They come direct from India.

Simply place a few of these amazing soap nuts into our small Wash bag and throw them in with your washing. They will leave your laundry clean and fresh for around 6 washes, no need for any other cleansers or fabric softeners. At around 10 cents per wash, why would you use anything else?

For more information about these amazing berries (click here)

or if you would like to try out some cleaning solution recipies (click here).

Soapnuts are 100%:

• Pure and natural
• Chemical free
• Economical
• Non allergenic (not a nut, really a berry)
• Antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifungal
• Biodegradable
• Wild harvested (organic)     
• Beneficial to grey-water and septic systems
• Not tested on animals
• Easy to use  ...... and most importantly, effective

So the children and teachers left with a sample of these to try out in the class room and perhaps at home in the teacher's case!