Bury & Bloom

Bury & Bloom is a participatory performance and outdoor installation rooted in the mythology of Spica, the sacred grain star held in the hand of Virgo, emblem of harvest, death, and renewal across civilisations. The work unfolds in the trees beside the river, on the summer solstice, peak of light and moment before the turn.

A suspended installation of hand-painted watercolour papers fills the branches like leaves. Each paper is seeded. Over the course of the exhibition, visitors are invited to take one, write a seed-intention for their second half of the year, and bring it home to plant. The installation begins full. It empties over three days. This living space is both a field and a temple. It dissolves, disappears and dies as the exhibition ends. The performance weaves workshop and ritual into a continuous time. Participants move through the some stages of the wheat life cycle (from buried seed to golden harvest) in a somatic journey that celebrates life through all its cycles: the small deaths, the dormancies, the invisible crackings-open, and the moments of full bloom.

The transition from participant to witness is unmarked. The performance emerges from within the group, as something planted in the dark breaks the surface and shines. This work is a prayer through the body. It honors death, rebirth, and the force of life.