‘S FOR SEEDS AND SURVIVAL’, NIne seed objects carved in IDDEFJORD GRANITe.
Exhibition in Association of norwegian sculptors’ garden, oslo summer 2024.
The beautiful can be found where we least expect it. What you see is not always what you think, and what you think is not always what you see. Nine seeds – each in reality the size of grains of sand – rest on the lawn between the old oak tree and the villa.
The significance of seeds and their potential is fundamentally existential. Without seed- bearing plants, humanity would not survive. Seeds come in countless forms, each more incredible and surprising than the other. Barbro Raen Thomassen engages with weed seeds, meaning seeds of unwanted plants in unwanted places – plants we typically dislike and do everything we can to remove, eradicate, or exterminate.
Weeds are a nuisance, but not entirely. They can also be a resource, provided they are kept in check and balanced with the crops. Some weeds are edible, like lamb’s quarters and nettles. Some are nitrogen-fixing and function as fertilizer, such as different types of clover. Weed seeds begin to sprout as soon as they come into contact with exposed soil. When weeds cover the ground like a blanket, they prevent evaporation and stop the soil from drying out. Weeds that are removed also make for good compost.
It is the withering and dying plant that produces seeds. Paradoxically, the plant’s last stage is also its first. There is a paradox in carving fragile, perishable seeds into solid stone: what seems insignificant and delicate becomes substantial and massive, what is light becomes heavy, what is small becomes large, what is almost invisible becomes visible. Suddenly, the seed becomes a bearer of the question about the future of humanity and the planet.
‘S FOR SEEDS AND SURVIVAL’ in SVELVIK Summer 2025.
‘S FOR SEEDS AND SURVIVAL’ is also the title for the seed installation In GALLERy MYREN,
KRISTIANSAND Summer 2026.
35 seed objects carved in limestone, marbel and alabaster. ‘Mat-grass’ (Nardus stricta), the seed carved in alabaster b.r., was purchased by Queen Sonja.