Growing Stories explores how we interact with different
spaces - urban and green, private and public - through the act of
planting. The project investigates our connections with the local
area, our understanding of public space, and how the anonymity of
the city may be pierced with personal, green interventions.
Participants are invited to enter a space for conversation and
exchange with artist Kamala Katbamna, and to swap their tales of
urban living for a patch of green.
Kamala works with each participant to create an urban story and
write it onto a scrap of newspaper. She then turns the newspaper
into a biodegradable pot, ready to be planted directly into the
soil. Each participant then pots up his or her own seed or cutting
to take away.
Everyone who participates is asked to plant their pot - and thus
their story - in a spot of their choosing. In the act of planting
and caring for their cutting, participants are invited to introduce
a green influence into the urban grey, and to put down some
emotional as well as physical roots in this transitory city of
ours. They are also invited to reconsider our interaction with the
public sphere, by planting their own, personal stories in its
realm.
Growing Stories has run at venues across London, and has been run in conjunction with a number of Avant-Gardening projects
Have a look at Growing Stories on Flickr
