‘against the grain’, shown at ‘KAOS’ at RSA, 19.11.2024


Dimensions h95cm, planter w82cm x d82cm, base pallet w120cm x d 100cm

pallets, soil, hessian, growing cereal rye


External shot of pallet structure
Close up of ‘WORLD’ logo on pallet: indicating the pallet has been heat treated to eliminate insects or ‘parasites’
 Close up of ‘ DE-TH1-490409 ’ logo on pallet: indicating the pallet has been heat treated to eliminate insects or ‘parasites’
Close up of the early stages of rye growth


This project began in September 2024, informing the subsequent year’s work. I constructed a container from abandoned pallets, filled it with compost, and planted rye grass on my 25th birthday (October 2024). I developed a personal relationship with the rye as it grew (documented in later works), until its subsequent demise in January 2025. This spurred my consideration of vegetal time-space and the life-cycle (from containment, to birth, to growth, and to death - from which spawns new life). My own interaction with the rye revealed the unavoidable power balances that exist between faster-moving human time-space and the slow vegetal life in how quickly we consume/use. This ultimately attuned me to my own daily cycles and the peripheral vegetal I encounter daily.