10/01/2022
Over the years we have been approached with many different requests to collaborate in projects but maybe the request by the to grow "weeds" for them has been the oddest of them all. Is that why we took the call? Maybe.
Y'all know that sharing the veggies and the flowers we produce at Pixca with the community has been part of our vision to create collective wellness since the beginning. Nonetheless, this project has brought to life many questions about the "others," the "unwanted," "those" in the periferies that we tend to ignore, be annoyed at and, on the hardest of the days, wished weren't there. As a farmer, it is kind of understandable but when we put that into the light of our sociopolitical and environmental context it is not.
So, for this collaboration, we walked the farm, the community garden and the rest of the Tijuana River Valley in careful search for all of them, all those "weeds" and "invasive" plants, asking them for permission to be uprooted and transplanted, they would go on a field trip representing us all- not only them plants but us all, humans who've been called that, been seen as that, made felt like that... unwanted.
After a few weeks in our precious greenhouse, making tremendous efforts to take on roots, the plants that made it are now in the spotlight as part of Grave / Grove, an art exhibition by at the
in Balboa Park.
We are happy to report that the plants have an entire team of caring hands tending to them. We invite you to go check out the exhibition. It is free admission.
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Exploring the translation between humans and plants, Sreshta Rit Premnath (b. Bangalore, India, 1979, based in Brooklyn, NY) presents amorphous plaster sculptures, metal fencing, and plants that cohabitate within the gallery.
Grave/Grove draws parallels between social exclusion and the horticultural category of “weeds” — plants that are either removed or suppressed because they are considered undesirable. His installation is informed by the austere and makeshift architecture of refugee camps and homeless settlements, while also drawing attention to the abundance and resilience that persists in spaces of adversity.
