Artist Panel—Seeds: Containers of a World to Come

Join co-curators Meredith Malone and Svea Braeunert as they engage in conversation with four participating artists in the exhibition Seeds: Containers of a World to Come. Carolina Caycedo, Juan William Chávez, Ellie Irons, and Anne Percoco each created newly commissioned artworks for the exhibition. They will discuss their projects as they relate to their respective practices as well a key throughlines in the exhibition.  

Free and open to the public.

About the Artists Carolina Caycedo (Colombian, b. 1978) is a multidisciplinary artist who draws on approaches from environmental justice, decolonization, ancestral knowledge, and feminism. Her practice honors the work of land and water protectors who have safeguarded and regenerated the biodiversity of their territories. Her sculpture, Ñañay Kculli ~ S'oam Bawi Wenag ~ Kiik K'úum (Purple Corn Sister, Red-Brown Tepary Bean Sister, Squash Sister), is co-commissioned by the Kemper Art Museum and The Brick, Los Angeles. It is inspired by the “three sisters” plant cultivation technology— an indigenous practice of planting squash, maize, and beans together as a system of mutual support.

Juan William Chávez (American, b. 1977) is an artist and cultural activist who collaborates on social-practice art projects related to community building, food sovereignty, environmental stewardship, and decolonization. His creative practice includes public art, installations, knowledge-sharing workshops, paintings, zines, beekeeping, and agriculture. He is the director and founder of the art and ecology nonprofit Northside Workshop. He created a new assemblage for Seeds titled Survival Blanket (Decolonize the Garden from Seeds to Bees).

Ellie Irons (American, b. 1981) and Anne Percoco (American, b. 1982) are co-collaborators who take an eco-social approach to art-making. With their ongoing Next Epoch Seed Library project they share a commitment to, as they state, “relearning relationships with weedy plants through the lens of reciprocity rather than animosity.” They created a site-specific version of their seed library for the exhibition. Harvested in the greater St. Louis region in fall 2024, the seeds were collected from local weeds found in ruderal sites such as vacant lots, street verges, superfund sites, and abandoned infrastructure.