Diversity in Seeds

Acrylic paint on wood, metal rods

This piece was created in response to large monocrop operations and the planting of Monsanto’s genetically modified corn, designed to be “RoundUp Ready.”

The plain yellow side of these hexagons represents the monotony of a crop that is engineered to be “perfect” while the flip side represents just a small sample of the thousands of other varieties of corn less commonly found. 

I imagine creating hundreds of these hexagons, in an attempt to more dramatically present the variety of corn that could be grown in this country compared to how much of the planting is the Monsanto variety.

One glimmer of hope is Braiding the Sacred, a network of indigenous corn keepers who are identifying and saving more than 2,000 varieties of seeds on the Onondaga Nation Farm, which is south of Syracuse, NY.