“This project touches upon so many important and timely issues: food security, environmental sustainability, wellbeing, migration, cultural diversity, and inclusivity to name a few. Growing your own food can become an act of resistance - cultivating the land, maintaining one's own culture in the face of hostile environments and repressive immigration policies” - Creative Dundee
Botanical Migrations
Sixteen repeat pattern silk screen prints, installed as posters in Mary Slessor Gardens, Dundee (2021).
Each poster links to a corresponding blog entry and recipe by participants
Each 118.9 x 84.1cm
A collaborative project with The Maxwell Centre and Ninewells Community Gardens (2020-2021), curated by Sharing Not Hoarding, brought together urban gardeners across Dundee to share recipes using local produce and personal migration stories. These contributions inspired 16 patterned posters installed in Slessor Gardens, celebrating the city's cultural diversity through the intertwined journeys of plants and people.
See also the connecting work Toile
BOTANICAL MIGRATIONS was produced in partnership with The Maxwell Centre and Ninewells Community Garden, commissioned and curated by Sharing Not Hoarding Dundee.
Working with urban gardeners across Dundee, participants were invited to contribute recipes (using locally grown produce) and personal stories of migration. These stories and recipes inspired a series of 16 repeat pattern posters, combining delicate hand drawn botanics with traditional Victorian tile patterns.
The project naturally bears testimony to the diversity of Dundee - embedding the migration of plants and people into the fabric of the prints with recipes coming from places as far apart as France, Spain, Ukraine, Poland, Argentina, USA, Pakistan, SE Asia, and Scotland. Individual gardeners record how they came to call Dundee home in corresponding blog entries (which can be accessed, together with the recipes, by QR codes embedded within the posters.) The project was accompanied by an evening of recipe sharing {online}, where participants demonstrated their recipes and shared about their experience of being involved in the project.
Ingredients locally grown/ foraged included; fenugreek, coriander, tomatillo, pumpkin, courgette, garlic, tomato, sweetcorn, beetroot, rhubarb, mushrooms, elderflower, sloe berries, green beans, red pepper, and dandelion.
With special thanks to Cully Mc Cullogh, Jonathan Baxter, Manuela de los Rios, Helena Simmons, Kate Treharne, and all the participants: Farzana, Urszula, Alexander & Caroline, Mary, Kate, Christina, Jalal, Nadège, Gisela, Gibby, J. Neff, Geeta and Tess.
Thank you for sharing your recipes and your stories.
You can read more about the project in an article published by Creative Dundee here.
“At home I make syrup with herbs I dry, pickle vegetables and flowers, I have a little home “herbapol” (herbalist)” ~ Urszula
“My favourite place in the garden is the polytunnel, I love seeing all the different names, colours and shapes of tomatoes… I’ve just started to grow edibles. I didn’t have the confidence before” ~ Farzana
“It’s healing. People need the healing power of nature” ~ Alexander & Caroline
“I always feel that I am important here.” ~ Gisela (speaking about the Maxwell Garden)
“I absolutely love this piece, it takes me right back to my grandma Carman’s kitchen in Malaga who taught me to shop for fruit and veg at the market and cook” ~ Manuela
“I had cancer and it was really bad, I really thought I wouldn’t get through it, I was on morphine for severe pain. It changes your life, I realised I wanted to give back to the community.” ~ Gibby
“I loved going to the pumpkin patch as a kid and choosing the one I’d carve. I look forward to Autumn rolling around when pumpkin pies, cakes, breads, and even ice cream are readily available. It’s a piece of home, my childhood.” ~ Tess
“I came to Dundee to be a French assistant for 10 months, 4 years later I am still enjoying Bonnie Dundee! When I arrived, I took the bus from the airport and I remember being amazed by the quantity of hazel trees and sheep. Despite Brexit being voted on the same year, I felt really welcome.” ~ Nadege
“I imagine myself falling asleep under an elder tree in full bloom and being invited into the world of the fairies where I would get protection from all the evil spirits! What great things happen when we open our mind to spaces and places and we connect with nature.” ~ Mary
