The revolution is here in the form of renegade bands of sunflower planters strewing seeds across the Twin Cities metro. Now in their fourth year of revolt, the organizers behind the
Sunflower Revolution are distributing discreet packets of seeds, encouraging the public to toss the seeds where they will.
“We want people to use this as a harmless type of graffiti that’s actually adding beauty instead of trying to destroy something,” says Minneapolis artist Karen Kasel who started the project with creative partner Marlaine Cox, a metalsmith. They call the project "a simple placemaking activity and organic participatory project." Together, they're
the low tech/high joy art collaborative, which also created the Shanty of Misfit Toys as part of the Twin Cities Art Shanties project. Last year’s Sunflower Revolution was located at artist Pete Driessen’s
TuckUnder Projects in Minneapolis.
For those looking to join the movement, the center of the Sunflower Revolution is an unsuspicious senior housing facility at Episcopal Homes in the Midway area of St. Paul. Low tech/high joy worked with the staff and residents of the
Seabury building to stage this year’s action.
They collaborated on every aspect of the project, from designing the art on the seed packets to selecting the type of seeds, and screen printing the packets, filling the packets and distributing them, according to Kasel. Funding was provided in part from Irrigate Arts. Fellow revolutionaries can find a stock of seeds kept in an open box outside Seabury.
The revolution seems to be building momentum. This year the group is shooting to disperse 450 packets of seeds throughout the Twin Cities. In addition to the seed hub, Sunflower Revolution will be staging demonstrations and distributing seeds at two upcoming arts events in the Twin Cities. Interested activists can join the cause at SHORE in Richfield, May 10 at 64th Street and Lyndale Avenue South, and the
Eco Arts Festival on May 17 on Harriet Island in St. Paul.
The movement sparked when Kasel decided to plant a crop of Russian Mammoth Sunflowers in her front yard with her two young daughters in 2010. The effect of this seemingly benign act was sudden and undeniable, Kasel says. People were immediately attracted to the 12-foot flowers with giant heads.
“Suddenly neighbors that we had never talked to before were walking by and stopping to chat with us about the flowers,” she says. “It sort of opened up the door in our neighborhood… I think there was something about the drama of the sunflower that was encouraging for conversation.”
The following year, the collaborators passed out artfully decorated packets of seeds from the previous season’s crop, and so the movement was born. It’s not without resistors, though.
“We like to push people against their boundaries and we’re finding that’s an interesting boundary,” Kasel says. “Some people don’t want to plant seeds where they’re not supposed to. It’s kind of fun to push people a little bit.”
The times seem to be fertile for this type of activism, too. From a group of renegade gardeners in
Britain who declared May 1st International Sunflower Guerilla Gardening Day back in 2007, to current efforts to reclaim scraps of land in
Los Angeles by planting gardens on them, activist gardening seems to be taking root in communities worldwide.