This day was a day of collaboration between myself, Devon Forrester-Jones and Elena Brake. I have joined them for the day bringing something of my own to their exchange that they were doing all week. The exchange is called The Devon Exchange where you go to each other cities for one week and work together everyday to produce interesting experimentations and activities, that normally you wouldn't do yourself or need that extra support in. This is the link to the exchange between the two artists:link to The Devon Exchange
The week prior to me joining their exchange for the day I had a chat with Devon about collaborating and experimenting, expanding my thinking by collaborating and just doing something different. We had a chat about possible experimentations whilst walking down the docks in Liverpool and looking at all the boats and beautiful sun that surrounded us. We started talking about flowers and the beauty of them, how they grow and whether we can plant flower seeds in different places. This is how the idea of sowing seeds began. We planned to meet the next week and this time joined by Elena Brake as she started her exchange with Devon.
So on 11th of April, on the fourth day of their exchange I joined them for the day where we wanted to do some experimentations with sowing seeds. We met up in a cafe in the morning to discuss our plan for the day. I brought my younger sister with me who visited me for a couple of days. She is very interested in art, especially animation and illustration as well as writing books. So I thought it would be a good idea to bring her along so she could experience a day in life of a not so typical artist. I loved having her over and really wanted to bond with her as well as sharing a day of my life.
First of all we all decided that we needed to get some flower seeds before we went anywhere, so we went to Wilko to get some. I chose marigold seeds, Devon chose gypsophila and bergamot, Elena chose pansies and forget-me-not and Patricija chose foxglove. We all chose them intuitively. Marigold seeds looked really different from the rest, the seeds looked like small sticks or very small wood chippings compared to the ones chosen by others.
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| Marigold seeds up close |
The first place we decided to go and "plant the seeds" was at the top of a car park.
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| Sowing seeds - car park |
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| Planting marigold seed in the wall of a parking lot |
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| Planting marigold seed in the wall of a parking lot |
We decided that it would be interesting to plant seeds in a place they won't grow. Flowers only begin their process of growing when planted but we have taken it away from them, the act of planting seeds whilst knowing they won't take and keep trying is quite beautiful. I went along the wall of the car park and planted the seeds in-between the cracks. It was a pleasantly calming repetitive activity which I enjoyed.
The second place we chose was St Georges gardens, planting seeds in benches, cracks, stairs, and bins.
Throwing one seed in each bin we found became our favourite based on the discussions we had later. We discussed the act itself of throwing the seeds away in the bin and where they will end up. We started to talk about how it could be beautiful if the seeds would grow in the landfill site when they get there. The concept became beautiful. We started to think whether we could create a performance out of it that will take on a mass presence. Whether we can take this idea to a gallery and when people come in, give them a seed and ask them to bin it when they get back home. Or sending a seed by post to people with instructions on what to do with it. I personally think this is very beautiful. It's one of those pieces where we need to find the right situation and place for it to work.
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The second part of the day we spent in the Liverpool Central Library. We did some 5 minute writing exercises to loosen up our writing. We did 5 minutes of writing about our bodies, how they felt in the present moment, 5 minutes of what surrounds us, 5 minutes of just writing whatever comes to our mind and 5 minutes of observing our surroundings first and then writing whatever we remember. For me it was very beneficial, also I really enjoyed sharing my writings with others and listening to theirs too. It was very fun. The library was absolutely beautiful.
Photographs by Patricija Tracuma
~ Ev
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