Christina Battle

FORECAST: Learning the Signals/Change is Coming 2021
Site-specific installation / Installation in situ
Site 4 – Pat Murphy’s Meadow, King’s Cove

The first stage of Christina Battle’s FORECAST: Learning the Signals/Change is Coming included collecting data through an online survey (June 2021) asking Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to talk about the weather. Citizens of the province shared their daily weather experiences including visual, olfactory and gustatory impressions of their immediate environment and its climate. This crowd-sourced data informed Battle’s development of a flag, installed at Pat Murphy’s Meadow in King’s Cove. Through careful consideration and research of the distinct biomes, characteristic plants and species on the Bonavista Peninsula, Battle selected seeds for visitors to sow in Pat Murphy’s Meadow or elsewhere. Hand-made sachets of yarrow and harebell seeds, available at the site, included a note: “Harebell are hardy and spread quickly. They are quick to respond to change and can persist in poor quality sites. Yarrow prefer to grow on disturbed ground and adapt to any kind of soil. They attract beneficial insects, thrive in hot conditions and can be used as a remedy for anxiety and stress.” 

In the realization of FORECAST for the Biennale, a site rich with the history and culture of place interacted with a short hike to the site of the flag, cultivating thought informed by place on how we might imagine a future and envision a new world in a time of climate precarity. The seed sachets, given in the shadow of the flag, emphasize individual agency for change within larger systems. Battle poetically highlights the opportunity for change and growth amidst the cataclysm of disaster, seeding the potential for reimagining how dominant systems might radically shift. 

MH