Lucy Jiachun Hu 胡嘉纯

The research started from my interest in the relationship between the mass trauma of Covid-19 and the healing power of nature. By chance, I got to know and started volunteering at the Meanwhile Garden, a community garden aimed to help people recover from the trauma of the covid lockdown. Four months ago, we were told that the council is planning to knock down this garden to build new council houses. Mourning about how I might lose this precious site and all the people that I love so much in a few months' time, I initiated the project In Search of Meanwhile Garden to preserve memories and happenings here. 

In Search of Meanwhile Garden is a community-based project, however, it tries to challenge the existing pattern of making community art, which is usually in the form of workshops, interviews and photographs. Out of the protection of the vulnerable people group in the Meanwhile Garden and my eternal wrestling against a flattened one-note story, In Search of Meanwhile Garden uses a plant-based approach towards making, which focuses on small happenings that happen organically. 

In Search of Meanwhile Garden is a seed that naturally sprouts from the soil. All I did was water it. 

Consists of objects I collected from the Meanwhile Garden: broccoli, rotten leaves, beans, daisies, branches, flowers that I don’t know the names of, tools, screws. I created a mobile centering with the idea of life, death, circulation and permaculture. 

Mimicking the structure of hanging toys, yet replacing the happy tokens with dead plants and objects, this installation is a sanctuary of souvenirs, a device that is constantly moving, activated by the movement happening around it.

The Meanwhile Garden is where I feel safe, it is protective yet mysterious, eternal yet ever-changing, childlike yet pagan. 

These drawings document my experience via a daily entry of small happenings at specific dates, spanning from Nov 2022 to Mar 2023. 

In November we picked beans and broccolis. In December we made pom poms for Christmas. In March we started to plant bat-attracting flowers, because if there are bats living here, the council can’t knock down this place.

For me, the Meanwhile Garden is a place mixed with a lot of things: the magical power of growing, the hilarious chatting moment, the eternally changing and evolving nature and the possible demolition in October. 

Meanwhile Garden Theme Songs Playlist: 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7s8E4pqBP58z3LS5wErcRx?si=43cf0ff4846e41a6

The publication In Search of Meanwhile Garden documented small happenings in a poetic way. I hope the story of Meanwhile Garden can spread out through this publication.

In Search of Meanwhile Garden is dedicated to the wonderful human beings I met there, to over 1000 other community gardens across the UK, and to all the gardeners and citizens that are committed to growing and holding out against urbanism. 

If you are interested to purchase the publication, please feel free to contact me: 

10000564@network.rca.ac.uk

A Walk After Snow is a zine documenting a happy yet long-gone walk I took in Phoenix Farm after the exciting snow in December. Every Friday we gathered together, weeding, harvesting, feeding chickens and rabbits. On 16th Dec we gathered one last time before the new year. There wasn’t much gardening work to do in the quiet winter time, so we chatted a bit, had some tea, took some walks, exchanged Christmas gifts and then waved goodbye.

Autumn is the season of the weed. I pulled out and killed a bed of weeds. In this short encounter, every weed became a special weed, akin to  how the little prince’s rose is different from any other roses. The time I spent with each weed makes each one different from each other. 

I created an archive of all the weeds I pulled out that day. After three months, the weeds I discarded in my backyard slowly transformed into compost.