Crocodile Seeds by The Migrant Ecologies Project

Bioartistic approach, storytelling, and plant cultivation meet the varied themes of the Garden Futures exhibition, as visual artist Lucy Davis presents her fascinating work at Museum of Finnish Architecture in collaboration with Bioart Society. 

Crocodile Seeds is an artistic research project that explores a 130-year-old dead crocodile, its history, and its contents.  

The 4.7 meters tall crocodile was killed in Singapore in 1888 and given to the British colonial Raffles Museum. It was stuffed with straw of yet unknown providence. From this straw, were gleaned cereal grains, and as-yet-unidentified plant and flower seeds. 

Organic farmer, Magnus Selenius and his niece Embla Lindblad from Nyby Gård, Espoo, specialise in older cereal varieties, and are trying to grow the seeds and cultivate this ‘crocodile meadow’. 

Another story concerns the historical figure of Pang Limah Ah Chong, a 19th C. Chinese, Taoist mystic and tin mine Triad leader in Colonial Malaya. According the a 1948 article in the Straits Times, his spirit resides in the same crocodile. 

How might incongruous materials and beings, hosted by this colonial trophy, seed stories that inspire in a time of climate change? 

Museum of Finnish Architecture, 2nd floor

16.3.2024

15.00-16.30
Museum admission fee (20/10/0 € or Museum Card)  

The event can accommodate 30 participants