Victorian Language of Plants, Family Workshop for The Floating Ballast Seed Garden, Arnolfini.

FRANCIS, Anna (2015) Victorian Language of Plants, Family Workshop for The Floating Ballast Seed Garden, Arnolfini. [Show/Exhibition]

Preview	Image (Image of Anna Francis site-specific performance workshop, for Arnolfini's Ballast Seed Garden.) ballast-seed-garden.jpg - AUTHOR'S ACCEPTED Version (default) Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) . Download (692kB) | Preview
Preview	Image (Image of Anna Francis site-specific performance workshop, for Arnolfini's Ballast Seed Garden.) ballast-seed-garden2.jpg - AUTHOR'S ACCEPTED Version (default) Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) . Download (615kB) | Preview
Preview	Image (Image of Anna Francis site-specific performance workshop, for Arnolfini's Ballast Seed Garden.) ballast-seed-garden3.jpg - AUTHOR'S ACCEPTED Version (default) Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) . Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract or description

Anna Francis was commissioned by Arnolfini, Bristol, to design a hands on performance workshop, exploring the Floating Ballast Seed Garden, an urban green project. The resulting family workshop used the plants on the ballast seed garden as a way fo talking about the importance of plants in urban environments, and also as a way of finding codes within urban space.

Information about the event:
Join artist Anna Francis for a hands on family workshop and visit to our Floating Ballast Seed Garden.
Join artist Anna Francis for a hands on workshop, using the Victorian Language of Plants to create your own artwork in response to the Floating Ballast Seed Garden and its ecology.
Anna will lead a hands on, clay based workshop, where we will create our own secret code using plants from the Ballast Seed Garden to make decorative plaques, using printing techniques with the plants to reveal a hidden message.

Item Type:	Show/Exhibition
Additional Information:	About the Floating Ballast Seed Garden: Seeds of Change' is the overall title of an ongoing ballast seed garden project from Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves. Between 1680 and the early 1900's ships' ballast - earth, stones and gravel from trade boats from all over the world used to weigh down the vessel as it docked - was offloaded into the river at Bristol. The ballast contained the seeds of plants from wherever the ship had sailed. Maria Thereza Alves discovered that these ballast seeds can lie dormant for hundreds of years, but that by excavating the river bed, it may be possible to germinate and grow these seeds into flourishing plants. For Alves, ballast seeds can be seen as a living embodiment of Bristol’s history of trade, reflecting the different routes travelled by Bristol merchants worldwide. Working with the University of Bristol Botanic Garden and Bristol City Council, Arnolfini have utilised a disused concrete barge and created a permanent Ballast Seed Garden on Bristol's Floating Harbour, populated with a variety of non-native plants, creating a living history of the city's trade and maritime past. The University of Bristol Botanic Garden team will plant a new scheme of plants at the Floating Garden annually.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	ecology, urban development, urban green space, gardening, regeneration, art and ecology, ecological art, artist gardener
Faculty:	School of Creative Arts and Engineering > Art and Design
Event Title:	Floating Ballast Seed Garden Family Workshop
Event Location:	Arnolfini, Bristol, England
Event Dates:	29th August 2015
Depositing User:	Anna FRANCIS
Date Deposited:	12 Apr 2019 14:29
Last Modified:	24 Feb 2023 13:55
Related URLs:	http://annafrancis.blogspot.com/2015/12/...
URI:	https://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/id/eprint/5564

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