Our latest community session was led by artist Jacques Nimki. Jacques has a long-time fascination and admiration for ‘weeds’, and uses them as a way to read the world. During our walk, we were talking about the irony of gardening – how non-native plants are grown in nurseries (often using landscape-destroying peat) are sold and planted into ‘unnatural’ places. Whereas native plants are seen as invasive or problematic when they self-seed and thrive
As we noticed the plants growing in the margins, the group drew parallels between the way people overlook and mistreat homeless people – by walking by them on the street – and how people relate to weeds. What we see as ‘natural’ is often an artificially controlled and gardened landscape, such as the planted visas of Capability Brown or the council-maintained shrubs we found along the streets, housing estates, riverside and industrial units. We went exploring along the plants found along the edges and verges, and recreated their colours back at the studio
