Image is a Seed

Image is a Seed: Student Addition is a group online broadcast of video artwork composed by the students of CUNY, utilizing the archived photography of Syeus Mottel. Mottel was a photojournalist who photographed 1960’s and 70’s political events, everyday people, ambient street scenes, and cultural events of music, theater, and art. History of the Project // Image is a Seed (2010-now): Image is a Seed is an ongoing artwork that combines the Syeus Mottel photography archive with new media made by current artists. Much of the archive is uncirculated and has not been seen by anyone in decades. By choosing a collaborative format, Prof. Mottel breathes new life into the photography work of his father inviting peers and students to respond with their own interpretations to the images of political and everyday moments of the 1960s and 1970s. Matthew Mottel also creates his own biographical work by connecting generational memory, as in the 2022 installment of the piece, The Image is a (Sydny) Seed. A work where he is the prism of reflection between his newborn son and late father. This body of work has been exhibited in galleries, online broadcasts, and in live performance internationally.