Funded by Creative Partnerships and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation as part of Ikon’s Inside Offsite programme, this project involved collaboration between artist Jacques Nimki and a group of pupils from Mayfield Special School, Birmingham.

Jacques is interested in wild flowers – their ability to attract and encourage wildlife and their culinary and medicinal uses. In Birmingham in 2005, he turned his collecting skills to Eastside, the former industrial district at the edge of the city centre, and in an effort to preserve the vegetation, he conducted a survey of the area and created a database of weeds.

Weeds also formed the basis of this collaborative project with pupils from Mayfield – the wild plants became a metaphor for dealing with issues around personal growth, change and what might be considered ‘undesirable’. As part of this exploration, the students designed and created their own t-shirts, grew plants, investigated colour theory and finally created their own living installation.

The exhibition in December 2006 was made up of furniture covered in turf that was cultivated into a series of organic, living sculptures.