ARTIST TAKEOVER: DAY 6

DAY 6 [am]

In the dead of winter, in the middle of a pandemic, I watched nasturtiums grow… I was inspired by Danh Vo’s show ‘Chicxulub’ at the White Cube. He had a room of historical fragments and live plants that appeared to me to be about a relationship between the two. One spoke of the past, the other of the future. 

In an attempt to experiment further with the idea of bringing life to my collection of fragments, I began a series of daily recordings of Nasturtiums growing from seed. The fragments came from my garden and I was curious to experiment with notions of returning the collection somehow to the idea of growth and life. At this stage I am building a series of recordings, there are no signs of life yet, but I am hopeful…

DAY 6 [pm]

In the last 12 days there are signs of life at last… the objective now is to combine this off shoot of growth and find ways to bring this emerging life into a form of union with the inanimate fragments and objects. 

There is a hint of spring and hope in the air on Day 6 of my artist takeover. Tomorrow will be my last day and although by no means do I have a conclusion to the unfolding of the story, I have found the activity of this week a very rewarding task. 

I attended a talk on Thursday called ‘Terrestrial University: Every Plant Has a Story (to tell) as part of the Critical Zones exhibition hosted by @zkmkarlruhe. What came up was that even though plants do not move, neither do they vegetate, they ‘live, strive, perceive, communicate and: tell stories’.