The body and the seed
Vessels to hold and be held
To grow, change, transform and nourish
The body and the seed
archives of interactions
reverberating story
Worldbuilders
The body holds many worlds originated as a drawing from my sketchbook in April 2024, reflecting on how labour shapes the body and land, and how the body and land carry memory. Labour is enacted in multitudes of ways, however this understanding of energy use has specific origins. Labour in Latin translates to ‘toil’ or ‘trouble’, suggesting the energy of labour is rooted in a turmoil, which under colonial systems of exploitation, is true. Systems of value are projected onto our bodies and land, which erase the multiplicities and infinity of possibility that they hold. Bodies are akin to seeds, beginning the process of growth in darkness, shaped by past conditions, adapting to the present, gathering, holding, carrying and transmitting information for future growth. These labours are practices of worldbuilding that transcend enforced borders and binaries, activating archives of deep knowledge across time and space towards more life. – kaya joan
Artist Bio
kaya joan
kaya joan is a multi-disciplinary Afro-Indigenous (Vincentian, Kanien’kehá:ka, Jamaican, settler) artist born and raised in T’karonto, Dish with One Spoon treaty territory, based in what is currently known as Prince Edward County, Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabeg, and Wendat territory. Kaya’s practice explores Black and Indigenous futurity, archival practices, mapping, storytelling, and relationship to place.