Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders. - Henry David Thoreau

In Rob Carter’s solo exhibition Faith in A Seed, miniature replicas of three 19th Century estates—Charles Darwin’s Down House, Henry David Thoreau’s cabin at Walden, and Sir John Bennet Lawes’ Rothamsted Manor—will slowly disappear, overtaken by the gardens in which they reside. The transformation will occur over the course of the ten-week exhibition at Art in General from April 13–June 23, 2012.

Faith in A Seed intertwines the languages of science and history into a living sculptural form. The three manors are the centerpieces of a large-scale triangular garden consisting of dandelions, bush beans, and corn, planted in three distinct sections to represent each man’s methodology. Viewers are invited to witness as the garden overcomes the estates in Carter’s controlled but fragile ecosystem in three distinct ways: time-based video projections, peepholes cut into the sides of the garden, and from an elevated viewing platform.

The exhibition lives between the gallery and the outside world, exposing the disproportionate relationship between food and shelter while highlighting man’s willingness to intervene in the natural order of the environment.