comBATTONS

A local intervention using life cycle and seed. Site-specific installation, Le Champ des Possibles, Montréal, Canada, 2007-present.

comBATTONS is an ongoing public intervention using life cycle and seed, paying respect to rhythmic, tangible, ephemeral gestures. They are gestures that, in the words of Stephen Harper “foster cultural participation, active citizenship, and participation in Canada’s civic life while strengthening connections among Canadians [1]”…but in the most authentic sense in that they come from the people. The intervention consists of gifting strangers with seeds packs while provoking dialogue about the nature of war and peace; a dialogue between foreign and local. The seed gifting aims to awaken a sense of place, a questioning of what being on Canadian territory entails in the face of waging war on another. The gifts are seed envelopes in the shape of a dove. There are thousands. Within the envelope, upon the dove’s belly, is a silkscreened image of the Roerich symbol, a cultural equivalent of the Red Cross. It literally means “Don’t Bomb Here” and was used in WWII Europe to protect monuments of cultural and historic significance from aerial bombing. The original incarnation of this project occurred as a street performance in Montréal, outside the Canadian Office of National Defense, where I handed out doves at the front door while interacting with passersby on boulevard Sainte Catherine for over two days [2]. It was during this time that the government was recruiting soldiers for the war in Afghanistan and the project was a response to their marketing slogan: “Fight Fear, Fight Chaos, Fight Distress”. Alarmed at the prospect of fighting for peace abroad, I chose an action that would draw attention to the need to cultivate peace in ways that were rooted in the issues of our home soil, beneath our feet, in our own back yards. Within the envelope, among the sunflower seeds, on a piece of paper were written the words: “Seeds are earnest and uncomplicated. They don’t need to fight for peace abroad, across any ocean. They know the soil of their own back yard is the most fertile of all.”

Credits (in the usual order)

Melissa Campbell; Emily Rose Michaud (and next three); Melissa Campbell (and remaining).