Christina Battle
seeds are meant to disperse (2022)
December 6—31, 2025
Heather Edwards Theatre | 12-4 PM daily
seeds are meant to disperse is an ongoing project by Christina Battle that reflects on seeds as living archives, carrying both the memories of the earth and the possibilities of future growth. Since 2015, the artist has grown, saved, and shared seeds, often offering them as a gift. In so doing, she seeks to foster alternative systems of exchange and encourage others to envision a world that follows a different path from the one it is currently on.
Through seeds and their dissemination, seeds are meant to disperse (2022) reflects on political and ecological collapse through larger-scale gestures, as well as smaller, more intimate ones. Here, the artist looks at seed vaults as a means to preserve life in the face of catastrophe, both environmental and otherwise, while also considering gardening as a nurturing practice that connects us to the earth that we inhabit.
Battle references several seed vaults in this work. One of them, also called the Doomsday vault, is in Norway, and another is in Syria. In 2017, the former risked flooding as a result of permafrost melt, and the latter was destroyed during civil war, eventually getting re-established in Lebanon. These seed vaults, engineered to be death- and destruction-proof, are faintly reminiscent of Noah’s ark; but unlike the flood that ravages Noah’s world, the catastrophes that the seed vaults of today are subjected to and meant to withstand are entirely man-made.
Moving away from these sterile storage vaults, Battle invites us back into her home, sharing memories of her grandmother’s garden, though she acknowledges the fallibility of her own memory and the fact that she may not remember much. The artist, too, grows various things in her own home.
Gardening is a labour of care, but it is also a labour of time. Seeds take time to grow, to harvest, to prepare, and to share; even so, not all seeds will produce. Still, they carry the potential for life, and it is arguably that potential that we hold on to the most. The artist reminds us that “gardening slows everything down.” And it is precisely the time that we spend caring for these seeds and the fruit they may eventually bear that makes them valuable.
seeds are meant to disperse (2022) is being screened as part of This small parcel of earth, a two-part program curated by Muriel N. Kahwagi.
Access to this screening is included with admission. This program is presented in conjunction with Entwined, curated by Mona Filip.
The second work in this series is Nour Ouayda’s The Secret Garden (2023), on view from February 17-March 15, 2026, Wednesday to Sunday, 12-4 PM.
