CO-SEED
Ottawa, Ontario
2024
Ottawa, Ontario
2024
CO-SEED is a design-build accompanying “The Seeds We Carry,” a new solo exhibition by Nigerian-Canadian visual artist Kosisochukwu Nnebe that is scheduled to open at the SAW Centre in Ottawa in June 2024. The exhibition explores how enslaved women in the Caribbean made use of various plant medicines to navigate the realities of life under slavery, ranging from the use of cassava as poison to the use of various roots and seeds as charms for protection. At its core, the exhibition teaches survival against overwhelming odds and a celebration of Black aliveness and humanity. At a time when food insecurity is at its highest across Canada— exacerbated by other factors such as anti-Black racism— this is a message and lesson in need of sharing.
With this in mind, the exhibition will begin and end with CO-SEED, an outdoor installation for a community food pantry built in collaboration with the SAW center. The pantry will be a vehicle through which food will be provided to the downtown community over the course of the exhibition. Once the exhibition concludes, we will work to relocate the pantry to a permanent home within the broader Ottawa community. This way, the exhibition project and its lesson and message of survival will live on.
With this in mind, the exhibition will begin and end with CO-SEED, an outdoor installation for a community food pantry built in collaboration with the SAW center. The pantry will be a vehicle through which food will be provided to the downtown community over the course of the exhibition. Once the exhibition concludes, we will work to relocate the pantry to a permanent home within the broader Ottawa community. This way, the exhibition project and its lesson and message of survival will live on.
