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. A pinecone is a opens and closes in response to the conditions of its environment; depending on its context, it decides to share its seed or to withhold. Similarly, earthseed is a living 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 conducted 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 traditional land-based technologies, the work aim to a be site of refuge and catharsis — where stories are protected, to provide medicine, to provide a compass for those who say no to settler colonialism.
