Ximena Garrido-Lecca: Seedings

Peruvian artist Ximena Garrido-Lecca works with seeds, plants, vegetables, metals, and fibers from the Andean region to create objects and installations. She explores the symbolic meaning these materials hold while amplifying the worldview and pre-Hispanic knowledge systems of Andean and Mesoamerican cultures. Seeds, which are central to the Garrido-Lecca’s presentation at the Wex, represent life, fertility, growth, and sustenance. In the pre-Hispanic world, they were often linked to deities believed to oversee the crops. Seedings draws on these ideas and on different forms of seed preservation and exchange from around the world, from ancient Andean practices to modern seed banks such as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Garrido-Lecca’s exhibition contrasts traditional and industrial agricultural practices. The gallery features a large metal silo as well as burlap grain sacks and ceramic vessels containing corn, bean, and squash seeds. The three plants are part of The Three Sisters cultivation system (known as milpa in Mexico) used for centuries by pre-Hispanic cultures to grow the plants in a mutually beneficial and efficient manner. As both a participatory installation and a sound sculpture, Seedings invites viewers to take seeds from the sacks and vessels, deposit them into the silo, and listen as they move through its interior. The installation sparks debates about modern seed distribution (including the control of GMO seed use) and crop cultivation, storage, and processing techniques. It highlights challenges related to seed conservation, climate change, and environmental policies, while evoking historical approaches to healing and regeneration that offer potential ways forward today.