Allotment Garden Event Series: Crocodile Seeds by The Migrant Ecologies Project
Location: small exhibition hall
Time: 16.3.2023 at 15:00–16:30
Place: Museum of Finnish Architecture, 2nd Floor, Kasarmikatu 23, 00130 Helsinki
Admission: Museum admission fee (20/10/0 € or Museum Card)
Bioartistic approach, storytelling, and plant cultivation meet the varied themes of the Garden Futures
exhibition, as visual artist Lucy Davis presents her fascinating work at Museum of Finnish Architecture in collaboration with Bioart Society.
Crocodile Seeds is an artistic research project that explores a 130-year-old dead crocodile, its history, and its contents.
The 4.7 meters tall crocodile was killed in Singapore in 1888 and given to the British colonial Raffles Museum. It was stuffed with straw of yet unknown providence. From this straw, were gleaned cereal grains, and as-yet-unidentified plant and flower seeds.
Organic farmer, Magnus Selenius and his niece Embla Lindblad from Nyby Gård, Espoo, specialise in older cereal varieties, and are trying to grow the seeds and cultivate this ’crocodile meadow’.
Another story concerns the historical figure of Pang Limah Ah Chong, a 19th C. Chinese, Taoist mystic and tin mine Triad leader in Colonial Malaya. According the a 1948 article in the Straits Times, his spirit resides in the same crocodile.
How might incongruous materials and beings, hosted by this colonial trophy, seed stories that inspire in a time of climate change?
The event is part of the Garden Futures: Designing with Nature exhibition program. The exhibition is the first collaborative exhibition between the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum on their journey towards a new architecture and design museum. It will sprawl across both museums, taking over the exhibition spaces on Kasarmikatu and Korkeavuorenkatu from November 10, 2023 to March 31, 2024.
The event can accommodate 30 participants.
Lucy Davis
Lucy Davis is a visual artist, art writer and founder of The Migrant Ecologies Project. Her transdisciplinary practice encircles plant genetics, tree lore and bird song as well as art/science, naturecultures, memory, materiality, narrative environments, and most recently, pyscho-ecologies of resilience. She is Associate Professor (Contemporary Art) in Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art (ViCCA) Department of Art & Media, Aalto University, Finland.
Bioart Society
Bioart Society is a Helsinki-based association developing, producing, and facilitating activities around art and natural sciences with an emphasis on biology, ecology, and life sciences. The association facilitates Ars Bioarctica, an art & science program with focus on the sub-arctic environment together with the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station of the University of Helsinki as well as the Tokyo Art & Science Research residency together with the BioClub Tokyo and The Finnish Institute in Japan. Bioart Society was established in May 2008 and it currently has over 130 members from Finland and other countries.
The Allotment Garden Event Series
The Allotment Garden is the activity space of the Garden Futures exhibition, which offers space for doing and thinking. The space exhibits allotment garden culture and hosts several small events will be held during the exhibition.
Saturday 18 November 2023 | at 3 pm
Did you know this about giant vegetables? (Finnish Giant Plant Association)
Language: Finnish | Participation: €20/10/0 or Museum Card
Saturday 16 December 2023 | at 3 pm
Did you know this about transplant gardens? (Suomen Siirtolapuutarhaliitto)
Language: Finnish | Participation: €20/10/0 or Museum Card
Saturday 13 January 2024 | at 3 pm
Did you know this about seeds? (Natural History Museum Luomus)
Language: Finnish | Participation: €20/10/0 or Museum Card
Saturday 3 February 2024 | at 3 pm
Did you know this about
Language: Finnish | Participation: €20/10/0 or Museum Card
Saturday 16 March 2024 | at 3 pm
Crocodile Seeds by The Migrant Ecologies Project
Language: English | Participation: €20/10/0 or Museum Card
Accessibility
The Allotment Garden space is located on the 2nd floor of the Architecture Museum, in the small exhibition hall. The space can accommodate a total of about 30 people (with safety distances 10-15 people). The space has various backrest seats available, and most seats have a small arm rest. The Architecture Museum building is not fully accessible. You may find more information about the building’s accessibility here.
The event uses the safer space principles of the Architecture Museum. Please familiarize yourself with them beforehand.
Book the Allotment Garden for grassroots activities
The Allotment Garden can also be booked free of charge for various groups as well as for small events related to architecture, design, built environment, culture, art, and science.
Book the Allotment Garden for grassroots activities here.
More information
Kaura Raudaskoski
Producer of Learning and Public Programmes
Architecture Museum
+358 45 773 10479 (Mon-Wed)
kaura.raudaskoski@mfa.fi
Garden Futures: Designing with Nature. An exhibition produced by the Vitra Design Museum, Wüstenrot Foundation, and Nieuwe Instituut. International partner Weleda, in collaboration with Gardena, Fiskars, Kekkilä, Vitra.
Image: Working sketch: Biji-biji Buaya Crocodile Seeds. Lucy Davis 2023