earthseed: kinship
Image courtesy of Smack Mellon. Photo by Etienne Frossard.
earthseed is an immersive, large-scale storytelling installation, sculpture, and archive. Inspired by temazcal ceremonies and ecological design, the sculpture takes on the architectural form of a pinecone, which houses intimate stories that are encoded onto seedpod lights. Just as a pinecone stores and guards its seeds by opening and closing in response to its environment, earthseed becomes an archive that withholds and discloses its seedstories according to landback protocols of entry.
Activated by a passcode and a users touch, each seedpod activates a sound collage featuring excerpts from oral history interviews between me and my long time friend, Ximena Violante. These are collaged alongside political speeches from Land Day — specifically the NYC March with Palestine for Land and Liberation.
Through weaving between modern and land-based technologies, the work aim to a be site of refuge that protects what Cara Pages calls “cosmologies of freedom.”
Installation view of Spiral Time (2024), curated by Alex Santana at Smack Mellon. Image courtesy of Smack Mellon. Photo by Etienne Frossard.
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found plywood, computer, coathanger, pantyhose, bamboo, LED lights, capacitive sensor, arduino, 3D printed seed, bluetooth headphones
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My research was guided by the help of many hands, teachers, and friends.
Thank you Ximena Violante, Sharon de la Cruz, David Rios, Tanika Williams, Ali Santana, Vito Ciancia, Phil Caridi, fields harrington, Quetzi, Simone Salvo, Cara Page, Erica Woodland, Oliver Yuan, An-Kai Cheng, Cindy Hu, Anna Lin, Jo Suk, Mashi Zaman, Lita Vinueza, Olive Yu, Quetzi, Amy Andrieux, Nigel, Derrick, Andrés Franco, & Isaiah Bayes.
BTS
