Remember Nature
Arts Residency and Community Event at Hauser & Wirth, Somerset - October 2023
Working in response to the ‘Remember Nature’ project instigated by artist and activist: Gustav Metzger in 2015.
Collective Action
With fellow artist in residence, Liz Horn, we engaged the public in collective action: inviting visitors to creatively express and discuss their hopes and fears for the natural world and participate in our ‘Seed Table’ and ‘Protest For Nature Wall’.
Collaborating with Frome Seed Library, we also highlighted issues around food and seed sovereignty, through a seed sharing and a durational performance.
Seed Count
Somatic Research - Durational Performance
Somatic exploration into the human need to commodify and control the natural world. The performance lasted an hour and took place outside the old threshing barn, now a gallery space at Hauser & Wirth, Somerset. As I methodically plucked seeds and placed them inside a glass container, Liz drew each seed out - quantifying and attempting to control nature as we went.
The seeds were from Hogweed, collected from the local area. Commonly considered a weed this perennial herb, otherwise known as cow parsnip, is actually edible - and it’s seeds are surprisingly pungent and aromatic. Common knowledge of the culinary and medicinal properties of this, and so many plants, has been lost to the mechanisation and corporate takeover of global food production.
These seeds are designed for wind dispersal, and on a rather unexpectedly gusty day, this performance took on a life of its own. But battling with the wind to see who could get the most seeds only highlighted the futility of working against the processes of nature
Seed count: 651
Production Rate: 5.532995392 sps (seconds per seed)
Photo credits: Rosie May Jones & Clare Walsh for Hauser & Wirth