Seeds: Lucy + Jorge Orta

The solo exhibition ‘Seeds’ follows on from the participatory project ‘70 x 7 The Meal Act XVL’ and is a key exhibition within Harewood House's 2023 programme for the Leeds 2023 Year of Culture. The project underlined Harewood’s reputation for ambitious programming by bringing internationally renowned artists to audiences across Leeds and demonstrates how contemporary art could be embedded within accessible

The exhibition was developed by Lucy Orta over many months by engaging communities across Leeds in conversations around food, heritage and culture. How we cultivate, produce and distribute food are entwined with issues of community and environmental responsibility, with implications at a local and global level. Presented within the Old Kitchen and Pastry Room (below stairs) of Harewood House, the exhibition references their historic function as spaces of food related activity. It includes an installation entitled Seeds (2016), a series of 23 unique hand-blown Murano glass seed sculptures. These larger-than-life specimens represent varieties of seeds and pollen, referencing the natural landscapes and gardens beyond the walls of Harewood. By magnifying and illuminating the beauty of seeds and the natural world, they also provide a metaphor for community regeneration, growth and resilience. Alongside the glass sculpture, set within a commode are a set of 22 pencil, pigment ink and watercolour drawings, Seed Bank (2014). The presentation of these artworks underlined the thematic continuity with previous iterations of a much wider project ‘Amazonia’, seeding a poetic metaphor of the need to care for nature, wildlife, and communities across Leeds, the UK and the world for now and in the future.

The presentation of the ‘Seeds’ exhibition demonstrates the values of heritage craft as a continuum to contemporary audiences. 29,359 people visited the exhibition and the visitor responses were positive. Comments include:

“We loved the delicacy of the glass in the Kitchen, and added use of colour Below Stairs”

“Beautiful work, interesting to see the craftsmanship of the Seeds – particularly some of the more detailed pieces”

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