So(e)wn

A garden is a site of reciprocal care, which isn't contained by fences. Care extends through communities through sharing seeds and knowledge.   

 

Seed sharing is a form of quiet activism. A radical act of defiance, challenging corporate control of food systems, preserves biodiversity, and promoting community resilience.

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Seeds hold knowledge. They hold potential in suspension, reminding us that dormancy is not failure but preparation. They teach us to slow, showing that disruption can be necessary for renewal. Seeds carry futures in dormant form, echoing the slow, patient labour of cloth. 

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Sowing and sewing share a language of small, repeated gestures that accumulate into life or form.  Each is an act of embedding: a seed placed into soil, a thread passed through cloth. They are practices of care, maintenance, timing and repetition. So(e)wing intertwines, dispersing, constructing and connecting. Acts of making futures.

These works propose softness as strategy, cultivating resilience through repetition, attention, and the radical, enduring act of growing.

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Download opening speech by Zoe Freney here