David Ryan - I am a seed

My practice is located where art, nature and technology intersect. 

The theatre of Meyerhold, Robert Wilson and Peter Brook influenced me during honours study at Middlesex Polytechnic, London. Hence my arts practice is collaborative, interactive and often devised. 

My work is interdisciplinary. I have recently used video, theatre, projection, agriculture and mechatronics to innovate with audiences. These installations have modelled pedal power and re-cycled materials to encourage environmentally critical thinking and sustainable action. I work at the grassroots, responding to the needs of the community producing innovative sustainable creative projects that create social and cultural capital. 

I maintain a parallel commercial career as a director of multi-camera live events.  Most recently directing ‘All About Women’ at the Sydney Opera House for International Women’s Day.

The Australia Council for the Arts has enabled my career development through a mentorship in Projection Art with Cindi Drennan of Illuminart. 

I am a seed, I’m a small, small seed contributes to Sharing the Seeds (QSRT15) by telling a local tale of food production through the voices and art-works of pre school children. Their understanding of the life cycle of plants is illustrated through story telling, song, drawing, ceramics and video projection. 

Artist David Ryan collaborated with pre-school children, their carers and educators. David engaged the children in several 'conversations' about collecting seeds, sprouting seeds and growing food in three two hour sessions. They ate heaps of apples. 

Each child’s comprehension of the life cycle of plants is embodied in each ceramic seed-pod that hangs from a stylised tree armature.

The projected video reveals the pedagogical processes we used to produce the seed-pods. The narrative illustrates the journey a freshly picked apple takes, from its Blue Mountains orchard to the pre-school in St Marys. As the farmer carries a wooden crate of apples by bicycle and on the train, he alights in St Marys. His journey takes us past the historical Goods Yard and down Queen St. The children welcome the farmer. We hear them singing, and sharing their knowledge of growing from seeds. Parents, carers and visitors responses to the work will be recorded at Mamre House.

I Am A Seed, I’m A Small, Small Seed has been developed in collaboration with: The Pre-School Children from Penrith City Council’s St Marys Children Centre, educators Rhonda Chruszcz, Clarissa McCormack and Aprajita Singh, videographers Peta Khan and Leigh Bramall, ceramicists Mike Moore and Jeff Lees and performers David ‘Farmer’ Ryan and ‘Maxi’