Nellie Geraghty
installations
harvest
harvest.hand pinched terra cotta. steel. soil.polyester thread. tumeric. cayenne pepper.
For centuries seeds have been thought of as sacred. They are the gift a plant gives when it is about to die and it is this gift that is continually passed down that keeps the plant and the ecosystems that depend on it alive. Traditionally people were the stewards of seeds and saved and replanted them year after year. Over the past 100 years, however, we have lost close to 94 percent of our seed varieties worldwide.
When a seed variety is lost so goes the history of how it came to be and the cultural ways of the people who nurtured it throughout the years. Harvest was created to pay tribute to this loss of cultural history and genetic biodiversity. Each hand pinched terracotta pot is meant to symbolize a seed. These pots were then attached to one another to signify the passing of time and the wisdom that so many cultures hold in the intergenerational ritual of sewing and saving seed.The pots were then hung in clusters suggestive of the many crops that have been hung up to dry in our ancient past.
lost and found
lost and found.pressed ceramic tile. old fence posts. extension chords. 30 watt bulbs. garden soil. mixed media. found objects.
Lost and found was inspired by a time capsule that I found buried in my friend’s backyard at the age of six. The two of us were fascinated by the glass jar filled with precious keep sakes from another child, living in another time. We were enamored by these ordinary objects—glass marbles, metal soldiers, buttons made from sea shells and bone—remarkable to a child who's play was formed around hard plastic and polyester. This piece is a reflection of all the trash and treasure the earth holds within its surface, an investigation into how the ordinary becomes the extraordinary. Here is an ode to childhood play, everlasting imagination and the passage of time.