Teresa Murak first sowed garden cress in 1972. At Easter time, this tiny plant sowed on, among others, a piece of cellulose wadding, and its rapid growth symbolises the ability of nature to renew itself and bloom in springtime. The artist covered various pieces of clothing with cress seeds and presented them in her exhibitions. In 1992, during a two-week action as part of the 4th International Paper Art Biennale Paper and Nature at the Papiermuseum in Düren, Germany, she made Paper with Seeds — small sheets of handmade paper. This type of paper is made by draining crushed plant fibres soaked in water using a sieve. They create wet layers which are removed from the sieve and placed one on top of another and left to dry. This time, Murak placed garden cress seeds between the paper layers, and its fibres settled on top of the seeds, creating a thick texture. This and other pieces by artists fit into the circle of Judeo-Christian and pagan references that are important to her. As curator Sebastian Cichocki wrote, ‘The action of seed sowing becomes a meditation or a prayer. The individual sprouting plants are letters, creating a puzzling, unreadable, constantly falling apart and mutating text inscribed in the urban tissue. The action of writing on the earth using seeds is for the artist an act of faith, a gift, and a submission to the laws of nature and higher forces’.

 Ewa Skolimowska, translated by Paulina Bożek