Christine Mackey

SEED MATTER Part II ‘Living Fields’
Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland

For this exhibition Mackey presents new and existing works in relation to her on-going social investigation of land use, plant culture and community gardening. Mackey unearths rare archival material in relation to Dr. Keith Lamb’s record of apple species once found growing in a vast network of orchards in Ireland. Buffs coat, Clearheart, Greasy Pippin and Bloody Butcher are some of the apple trees sourced by Lamb, which Mackey explores to draw parallels between the processes of artistic, archival and site intervention and that of diverse food cultures. In challenging the monopolization of food production, Mackey also reflects on the wider geo-political effects of international patency laws such as ‘Order 81’ (imposed by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, 2004), and similar European directives (i.e. DUS Law), which inhibits farmers from saving and re-using their indigenous seeds.