‘Seeds of Trees, Sounds of Mountains’ at the Aga Khan Centre

For Seeds of Trees, Sounds of Mountains, my second exhibition at the Aga Khan Centre, I’ve created a series of clay casts inspired by my visit to the Millennium Seed Bank.

One of the pieces is a cast of Leucospernum conocarpodendron called “200-Year-Old Seeds”. Against the odds, in 2005 the propagators at Kew managed to germinate a few seeds 200 years after they’d been collected. They’d been put in a leather-bound notebook by a Dutch merchant whose ship was captured by the British Navy off the Cape of Good Hope in 1803. The seeds were housed in the Tower of London, and later at The National Archives before coming to Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank. Rachel cast a small branch taken from the plant now growing in the Temperate House at Kew. This amazing story demonstrates the power of nature to survive, and the importance of seed banks. To quote an ecologist at Wakehurst: “If a seed can survive that long in poor conditions, then that’s good news for those in the Millennium Seed Bank stored under ideal conditions”.

Other works include casts of drought-tolerant Beech and Hornbeams from Romania and Georgia; Elms, Ash, and Horse Chestnuts threatened by disease; and the Oak, celebrated with branches and germinating acorns from Wakehurst. Each piece begins with a real specimen, pressed into clay to record its form in detail. Together, they offer a tactile record of nature’s resilience, fragility, and capacity for renewal.

‘Seeds of Trees, Sounds of Mountains’ is an exhibition exploring issues around climate change with works by artists Ubayd Ahmad, Mobeen Akhtar, Samantha Buckley, Mike Collier, Rachel Dein, Jenni Hawkins, Carmen Mardonez, Helen Pailing, Olga Prinku, Robert Strati, Adam Tait, Stephen Turner, writer & poet Corina Lozovan, and sound artist Geoff Sample.

Elements of this narrative are beautifully interpreted by the creative responses of the selected artists from across the globe working in a variety of disciplines. Although at different stages of their careers, each artist brings a tapestry of ideas from their broader practice, and a passion for climate conservation. They provide a visually stimulating and thought-provoking space to consider, contemplate and raise awareness of why the ‘Seeds of Trees and Sounds of Mountains’ are fundamental to our survival.