Seed The Change

Exploring environmental and ecological rights, Sydney based photographic artist

and visual activist Sally McKay presents Seed The Change in her third solo exhibition

at .M Contemporary, Sydney.

At the intersections of nature, knowledge and representation lays the work of artist

and visual activist Sally McKay. From her research on genetically modified seeds,

transnational organisations’ patenting of agriculture, diminishing seed biodiversity

and the possibility of a resultant ecological catastrophe, McKay showcases highly

sophisticated and immersive imagery that encapsulates her concerns for the future

of seeds.

Seed the Change places the Moreton Bay Chestnut, a native seed found in very

few places within Australia and the pacific, including McKay’s home suburb in NSW,

at the centre of her exploration. Fastidiously arranging over 3,000 collected seeds

into intricate designs, documenting each instalment with exquisite mastery over

light and colour. McKay engenders the function of aesthetics as a way of masking

the commentary pertaining to the devastating consequences facing humanity as a

result of seed extinction.

Presented en masse, the Moreton Bay Chestnut seeds signify the thousands of

seed types and accompanying local knowledge lost to extinction over the past 100

years. Alongside the exorbitant debt killing farmers and destroying lives globally

as a result of seed interference. Herein, McKay’s connection to her locale, through

seed, becomes paramount when considering how plant life has shaped and guided

humanity over millennia, and questioning how the current industrialisation of

agriculture will shape the future of humanity.

McKays’ photographs invite audiences to relish in the incredibility of colour and

detail, akin to the magnificence of the natural landscape. While her installation,

orchestration and control evokes greater inquiry into the ramifications of

environmental manipulation by the hands of humanity.

Press

Seed The Change – Sally McKay