33 seeds comprises a new body of work in ceramic and video by Glasgow-based artist Mina Heydari-Waite. The exhibition explores dreaming, gestation and world-weaving, taking inspiration from the plant Esphand, which grows across the Middle East and North Africa. In Iranian cultures, the plant is often burnt in conjunction with a chant that calls upon 33 seeds to protect against The Evil Eye. Esphand is considered both medicinal and hallucinogenic, theorised as the magical psychoactive haoma referenced in ancient Zoroastrian texts, and soma in Indo-Iranian texts.

Stalks of Esphand appear as a motif across ceramic tablets, wooden stools and a specially configured plinth displaying a prop from Heydari-Waite’s new video. Interspersed with archival imagery fromIranian television networks, the work features the artist, her mother, and sister. Together, they embody past, present, and future, contemplating Esphand’s place in cultural histories, personal narratives, and speculative futures.  

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