Seed Lights

‘Seed Lights ’ was an outdoor light and sound event with light projections of animations to music and live poetry performances at Winterbourne House & Garden. It was accompanied by gallery exhibitions of drawings and paintings by Saranjit Birdi and co-created works by community participants’ who engaged in the project art workshops.

Seed Lights was set in winter, amidst cultural and religious festivals celebrating spiritual aspects of light. It also followed on from Saranjit’s exhibitions ‘The Secret Life of Plants’ and ‘Poiesis’ in 2023 at Winterbourne House inspired by the Garden’s flora and Herbarium Collection. Paintings and sculptures that were exhibited inside the gallery, subsequently became large-scale animations to music projected on to the outside of the building in the Seed Lights.

Some of the animations by children and adults included references to the Hindu festival of Diwali as well as spiritual or divine light in other cultures, and flora.

Saranjit Birdi

“Combined-art could be likened to producing architecture or a feature film, harnessing the creativity of other people and motivating them to collaborate on a work where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It is both challenging and rewarding to co-ordinate non-professionals and professionals into a cohesive, collaborative work. This was achieved through delivering a series of artist workshops engaging children, young adults and diverse groups to produce co-created works around a strong concept and theme and directed by the artist. 

I conceived the idea of projecting drawings on the walls of Winterbourne House nearly ten years ago. I was finally able to realise this vision through the enthusiasm and kind support of Winterbourne’s Director Lee Hale and Henrietta Lockhart (Curator - Museum Collections). This was the first such event at Winterbourne and I found the challenge motivating. One of my key aims was to reach wider audiences. The exhibition then moved to Birmingham Botanical Gardens. and the opportunity to exhibit there and conduct workshops was truly amazing”.

Saranjit is a contemporary artist with foundations as an architect, dancer and musician. His combined-art works merge different art forms into a whole, where he creates and produces the music, visuals and stage production/ performance. His interest also lays in working with diverse, local artists including mentoring emerging artists through projects.

- Animations and Video documentation of Seed Lights event held on  1st December 2023 at Winterbourne House & Garden

- Images for animations co-created by artist workshop participants at Winterbourne House & Garden; The Birmingham Botanical Gardens; Ramgarhia Sikh Temple, Birmingham; Ariel Scout Group, Selly Oak; Friends of Selly Oak Park; Saranjit Birdi’s ‘Painting To Music’ group

- Poetry by Phil Thomson. Darren DeToni and Nusaybah Iqbal- Paintings and prints by Saranjit Birdi

With Grateful Thanks to:

Arts Council England and Heritage Lottery Fund

Winterbourne House & Garden

The Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Projectionist Steven Pool

All volunteers and assistants on the project