Periuk Buaya

Microfibrillated Cellulose (MFC), wheat straw, charcoal & bulrush seeds
10 x 40 x 7 cm
Piece commisioned by Migrant Ecologies Projects
2024

Periuk Buaya (‘Crocodile Pots’ in Malay) is a series of pots that will help germinate the seeds that came from the interior of a Singaporean crocodile over 136-years-old while seeking to recover the stories behind the spirit of this animal.

The 4.7m crocodile was shot by a colonial hunter and displayed at the Raffles Museum now the Singapore Natural History Museum. According to a 1948 article in The Straits Times, it’s believed that the crocodile hosts the spirit of a historic figure: Panglima Ah Chong. Described as part ‘Robin Hood’, ‘Rasputin’ and Taoist/Malay world mystic, Ah Chong was a migrant Chinese, tin mine Kongsi head and anti-colonial freedom-fighter. In 2013, when the museum decided to repair the crocodile, they discovered that it was stuffed with a mixture of imported straw consisting of wheat and rye alongside other plant and flower materials. From within the straw Lucy Davis, founder of Migrant Ecologies Projects found a series of potentially living, wheat and rye grains, as well as other, as-yet-unidentified plant and flower seeds.

Now, with the help of the farmers Magnus Selenius and Embla Lindblad from Nyby Gård, the recovered seeds will try to grow and cultivate a ’crocodile meadow’ in Espoo, Finland.

Drawings and visual references done for the creation of the final design.

Test with bleached wheat straw and MFC.

Test with wheat straw and unbleach pulp.

Test with MFC, and wheat straw mixed with charcoal.

Test with MFC, wheat straw, and charcoal applied to create a gradient.

The materiality of the piece had to fulfill an important function since it shouldn´t modify the pH of the soil and at the same time it had to help the humidity conditions of the earth so that the seeds could grow. Several experiments with biomaterials were used, among which I tried unbleached pulp and Microfibrillated Cellulose (MFC) as a base, so that they would not be harmful to the soil and at the same time allow the material to transform and even disintegrate.

Periuk Buaya consists of seven modules which can be moved in order to play with the crocodile's position. It is made of rye straw stuffing (from the interior of the crocodile), MFC, bulrush seeds, and charcoal to allow the plants to drill and intervene in the shape of the pots, letting the spirit of the animal take action in the design of these.

The pots will guard and provide care to the rye, wheat, poppy, cornflower, and vetch seeds that have been waiting for more than 136 years inside the crocodile.

The farmer Magnus preparing the box that will contain the Periuk Buaya and the seeds.

Final piece

The device that will show the final state of the ‘Periuk Buaya’ takes its inspiration by the way the crocodile was transported when it was killed and by one of the homemade structures that farmers in Espoo build to protect crops. The intention is to transform the cruel and violent past behind this story into acts of affection, care and hope.