Herbal zine workshop
The first part of the workshop was looking at the different ways of presenting plants and visually narrating our relationship with them. We looked at Renaissance herbaria (such as Syrenius’ herbarium), cyanotypes of aquatic plants by Anna Atkins, and works by contemporary Polish artists such as Cecylia Malik and Diana Lelonek. This was followed by a writing workshop where we read texts with plant motifs using the interrupted reading method, individual walks in search of inspiration, and the joint creation of a mind map featuring sketches and associations. The second part of the workshop was dedicated to developing individual zine pages and scanning them. We wanted to consider and analyse the way we look at plants in the city with sensitivity and attention.
Plac Konstytucji, where we met for our workshop, is not the greenest of places in Warsaw. This prompted us to look for rebellious plants growing between the pavement slabs, on the tram tracks or in the gutters. The discovery of compass lettuce, yarrow, goldenrod and stinging nettle in the cracks of the concrete inspired participants to think about art made by and with plants and alternative ways of living together in the city.
The meeting culminated in the creation of a zine with the collectively chosen title: “HOME – Whose?”.
Photo by Julia Krupa and Anna Szmuda