a sort of Manifesto:
What seeds are meant to disperse needs (and wants) in a curator.
A seed is a living entity, held in a resting state until it begins germination – a process that results in the development of a mature plant, provided all of the seed’s needs are met. A seed contains all of the parts necessary to develop into a seedling, as well as the nutritional resources needed to nourish the embryo during this process.1Lee Buttala and Shanyn Siegel, The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving (Decorah, Iowa: Seed Savers Exchange, Inc, 2015).
It is from within this increased visibility of the corporate takeover of our food that my own engagement with saving seeds emerges, and as such, I see seed saving first and foremost as a subversive, political act.2seeds are meant to disperse [to get to the future, a return to the past].
Seed Saving is Radical Action.
Seeds require tending and care that follows their particular sense of time. Saving and sharing seeds can help us better consider a number of issues at the heart of multiple complicated, large-scale subjects including: food security and sustainability, species diversification, seed copyright, climate change, urban renewal, land reclamation, and anti-capitalist forms of exchange.3Battle, Christina: Seeds as Data (what we lose when the universal becomes proprietary).Vancouver, BC: ArtSpeak, 2021. and Battle, Christina, seeds are meant to disperse [to get to the future, a return to the past] in “Ecologies in Practice Environmentally Engaged Arts in Canada.” Editors, Elysia French & Amanda White, 2024.
seeds are meant to disperse needs a curator who cares about these concerns, and who is dedicated to drawing attention to them while engaging in the slow learning that comes from spending time with seeds.
Seeds and plants are often used as colonial weapons. Speaking with a class in Bethlehem, Palestine in early December, 2023, I heard about the ways the occupying Israeli government makes it illegal in some regions for Palestinians to pick seeds and harvest from Indigenous plants. Impossible for them to harvest and collect, they are instead forced to buy necessary spices and mixes from settler markets.4online conversation with MA class at Dar Al-Kalima University led by Rehab Nazzal, December 8, 2023.
Over the last century, a staggering 75% of the world’s crop diversity has become extinct.5seeds are meant to disperse, video installation, Christina Battle, 2022)
seeds are meant to disperse needs a curator who feels these things; a curator who will help highlight and further contextualize these feelings into an exhibition.
Working with seeds requires a lot of delicate work that takes time.
seeds are meant to disperse needs a curator who is interested in having conversations—who wants to get to know the complexity that sits at the heart of the project—who shares an interest in sitting with this complexity, and who wants to talk through new ways of considering it. seeds are meant to disperse needs a curator who considers curating as a function of time: who is thinking about ongoing, repeated opportunities to engage, and who wants to keep the conversation going.
For when you share this approach, there’s no way you can do these things quickly.6Paraphrased from a conversation with Cecily Nicholson, November 25, 2023
As an ongoing and forever growing project, seeds are meant to disperse continues to adapt. This requires continually rethinking strategies as the work strives to be more aware of itself.7seeds are meant to disperse [to get to the future, a return to the past].
seeds are meant to disperse needs a generous curator who wants to help tell complicated stories. Who offers care, support and encouragement—who wants to spend time thinking through ideas—who wants to try to help make things happen.8Paraphrased from a conversation with Lisa Myers, January 22, 2024.
The value of a seed is one of potential, one that remains inert unless planted, grown, and then saved again.9seeds are meant to disperse [to get to the future, a return to the past].
Saving seeds is responsive to a number of external factors, seeds are meant to disperse needs a curator who isn’t afraid to adapt and pivot in response.
[…]with participatory works, […] there needs to be a relationship of trust between the artist and curator in order to allow the artist to facilitate the work with a community. Relationships of trust need time to build.10Considering the Role of the Curator with Alana Bartol.
seeds are meant to disperse needs a curator who understands that somethings don’t need audiences at all.11Paraphrased from a conversation with Cecily Nicholson, March 9, 2024.
There is beauty and joy in working with seeds.
seeds are meant to disperse needs a curator who recognizes and relishes in this beauty; a curator who enjoys the process of making work and doing research.12Considering the Role of the Curator with Alana Bartol.
“We talk about failure all the time in artistic practice and the need for failure in order for your practice to change and develop. And so, why shouldn’t we think about failure in curatorial practice (or processes), too? If you can’t trust artists to go through a process in which they might fail, how will anything worth doing get made? The artist is going to come up with something, even if they fail, and from that you can have things to talk about, present, discuss, and maybe even evolve into something better than what it was originally supposed to be in the first place.”13Considering the Role of the Curator with Alana Bartol.
Sharing seeds needs others to engage with, to share with, and to exchange with. Working with publics in this way requires care and patience – it can result in unexpected results, it sometimes (often) fails.
seeds are meant to disperse needs a curator who can sit comfortably with failure and learn from it – who can spend time considering how people do and don’t engage, and who is always willing to try again.