Historic Treasure, 2011

For the past few years, my work has explored the saving of heirloom seeds and how this practice protects biodiversity and contributes to sustainability. This new series of drawings re-imagines containers that might or could have been used to save, preserve, hold and transport seeds throughout history. I’m interested in both the utilitarian and the imagined container.

Today, most people save their seeds in clean, dry and practical containers. But what if seeds were saved in containers made for saving extremely precious and valuable things? What if we saved seeds in treasure boxes usually reserved for jewels or the ashes bones of saints—the original purpose of a reliquary?