the seeds we carry (2024)
The Seeds We Carry draws attention to how enslaved peoples used plant life to navigate life under slavery. It pays homage to the conjure men and women – the healers – whose knowledge of the natural environment made it possible to transform roots, seeds and bark into poison, healing remedies and talismans for protection, as needed.
Here, the vessels in which these concoctions were passed along covertly are cast in glass and decorated with vivid sequins in the tradition of Haitian libation bottles. This adornment serves not only to preserve the secrecy of their contents but also to attract the power of the spirit world. This relationship between beauty, power and knowledge is crystallized in the decorated nails of the ghostly hands offering these vessels up for use, a representation of the power of conjurers who could transform cassava and a long thumbnail into weapons of resistance – for those knew to make use of them.
Key words: critical fabulation; poison; plant medecine; reproductive rights; protection charms; rootwork; libation; voodoo; african spritiaul traditions; syncretism.
the seeds we carry: mojo bag, 2024, glass, sequins, beads, putrefying cassava juice
the seeds we carry: mackandal; 2024, glass, sequins, beads, ready-made furniture, John Crow beads, sugar apple seeds paste,
the seeds we carry: ring jug, 2024, glass, sequins, beads, ready-made furniture, John Crow beads, elegua cologne, whiskey, loadstone, calabash seeds