Listen to my radio interview on Art Matters 3MDR 97.1 FM, talking about my Doomsday Core works.
Doomsday Core comprises agricultural grain seed samples from the 2022 seed deposit from the Australian Grains Genebank, Horsham, Victoria, Australia to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic circle near the North Pole, a work that developed from my Spitsbergen Artist Center Residency in 2022.
The work consists of glass-blown seeds which burn, blister and bubble, creating atmospheres of trapped air and microcosmic abstract forms of ash residue. The work depicts seeds frozen in time, referencing an ice core sample.
The seeds are frozen in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault at –18 degrees Celsius as a food reserve in the event our current food sources are destroyed by fire, flood, famine or war. The seed vault is built 130 metres deep into the Svalbard mountainside to retain sub zero temperatures from the High Arctic natural weather systems.
Due to global temperature rises at the Poles, permafrost around the seed vault is melting, threatening global food security and human survival.
Medium: Blown glass, seeds, 2024
Size: 6cm x 35cm x 6cm
Amanda Page 