Alexis Parinas | The New Block Commission

There are so many seeds, so many stars, 2024

There are so many seeds, so many stars is a new commission by Alexis Parinas, an artist working across moving image, printing, painting and installation. It was developed in collaboration with 230, Year 7 students from St Peter’s School, Huntington. Combining the students’ interest in film and storytelling, Parinas worked with them in 18 workshops, across an academic year.  They were invited to create new worlds together through storytelling before translating them into vivid, kaleidoscopic moving images by applying felt tips directly onto 35mm film.

In short, eight-frame films, the students depicted flowers blooming, plants growing and stars shooting across the night sky. Inspired by these animations and their themes of growth and renewal, Alexis created There are so many seeds, so many stars. Originally painted onto 35mm film, before being scaled to span the facade of Wysing’s New Block, the work begins with a vibrant sunrise. Flowers blossom in the golden fields of summertime and bare, winter branches are silhouetted against a quiet dusk before sunset falls and the cycle begins again. Zooming in and out of grassy landscapes, as well as skipping across the seasons, the work takes us through daily and yearly cycles. By reflecting on these natural rhythms,There are so many seeds, so many stars invites us to celebrate the beauty of everyday transitions, and our relationship to them, as they unfold around us and across the landscape.

Alexis Parinas lives and works in London. Alexis has presented work or led workshops at numerous arts organisations, schools, universities, and youth groups across the UK and internationally. Previous projects include Markets, Memories and Mangoes, Creative People and Places Hounslow, London; Film Diary NYC III, San Mei Gallery, London and Millennium Film Workshop, New York (all 2024); Analogue Short Film Screening, not/nowhere, London (2023) and Concrete Salon, Barbican Centre, London (2019). They are part of Syllabus VII, a collaboratively produced alternative learning programme developed by Wysing Arts Centre in partnership with Eastside Projects, Birmingham, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, PS2, Belfast, Spike Island, Bristol, TACO, Thamesmead, and Studio Voltaire, London.

The New Block Commission is an annual commission that engages directly with Wysing’s site and surrounding landscape. Marking a move away from indoor, exhibition-based projects, the opportunity invites artists to intervene in and re-make the facade of Wysing’s most prominent building.