Student sows seeds of revolution
A CENTURY years after the Russian Revolution, the dream of one Russia’s most prominent geneticists has found new life thanks to a Hopwood Hall College student.
Nikolai Vavilov dreamed of erasing famine in the world, he travelled the world collecting crops to bring back to St Petersburg and shared knowledge with the likes of Charles Darwin.
At his lab in St Petersburg, he created the world’s first seed bank with the aim of crossbreeding the seeds to produce a higher yield and have a greater resilience to bad weather.
But, after Stalin rose to power, Vavilov was imprisoned and suffered a horribly ironic death after he died of starvation three years into his 20 year sentence.
During the Second World War, the vault in which his seeds were kept was protected by a group of scientists; who refused to eat the seeds despite nine of them dying from starvation.
Now, artist Callum Cooper has brought Vavilov’s legacy back to life as part of a new exhibition The Return of Memory at HOME in Manchester, which marks 100 years since the Russian revolution.
A selection of the seeds were recovered from Vavilov’s vault and brought to Hopwood Hall College’s gardening, landscaping and aquaponics department.
Here, under the guidance of student Graham MacDonald, they were carefully grown by the course’s students for use in Callum’s project.
The sapling plants were then transferred to HOME where Callum will continue to grow the crops in a state of the art programmable flower bed.
Members of the public were invited to see these saplings, before the group behind the exhibition create a Christmas Borscht on the Russian Christmas Eve, January 7.
On that day, members of the public will be invited to dine on the crops along with any vegan additions they bring to the event.
Graham said: “At first, some of the seeds wouldn’t germinate because of the change in conditions, Middleton is cold but it isn’t quite on the level of St Petersburg.
“But as we got closer to winter they really started to grow very well.
“It has been a lot of hard work and toil, but to be allowed to be a part of a project and a story like this is amazing and we’re grateful for that opportunity.
“I can’t encourage people to come and check the exhibition out enough, it’s a fascinating story and well worth experiencing.”
Details on how to visit the Vavilov Project can be found on HOME’s website. ●●Hopwood Hall College student Graham MacDonald has grown seeds taken from Russian scientist Nikolai Vavilocv as part of an art exhibition