In Search of Meanwhile Garden/寻找共同花园

Illustration, Experimental Illustration, Book, Independent Publishing

MA Visual Communication, Royal College of Art, Graduation Project

Featured on It’s Nice That

RCA Varley Memorial Award
GDC (Graphic Design of China) Award, Shortlisted
Exhibited in GAF Shanghai 2024
Communication Arts, Finalist

Introduction/项目简介

The research started from my interest in the relationship between the mass trauma of Covid-19 and the healing power of nature. The Meanwhile Garden is a recovery garden to help people from the trauma of the lockdown located in central London. In Search of Meanwhile Garden aims to preserve memories and happenings here, since the council has put forward plans to knock down the garden after October this year.

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 organic happenings.

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. Keep Calm and Carry on growing. And wishfully awaits, the world to come.

‘寻找共同的花园（In Search of Meanwhile Garden）’是在伦敦历时一年创作的项目。项目背景源于后疫情时代的的集体创伤与自然的疗愈力量之间的关系。Meanwhile Garden（共同花园）是位于伦敦市中心一个社区花园 (community garden)，建立于2020年，被建立的初衷是疗愈社区疫情封城的创伤。‘寻找共同花园’（‘In Search of Meanwhile Garden’）以回忆的方式记录了发生这个花园里的瞬间，因为这座花园将在被政府拆除。

绘本以日记的方式记录了花园里日常发生的一些小事：十一月份，我们采摘豆子和花椰菜；十二月，我们为圣诞节制作了绒球；三月，李子花开了；四月，李子花落了。

通过这个项目，我希望强调社区花园在城市环境，社会结构和心灵疗愈中的重要性。因为人类在照看植物时，也在耕种内心世界。深层次地与自然接触有助于培养一种有机的、不断生长的思维模式。

献给花园里的可爱人们，献给全英国1000多个其他社区花园，献给所有相信自然疗愈力量的人们。继续耕种吧！并满怀希望地等待着，明天，后天，还有许许多多还未到来的日子。

The Book/书籍内页

Exhibition In Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, July 2023/展览现场

A Reading Device/一件阅读的工具

Workshop/展期同时的工作坊

An on-going and drop-in-anytime seed-sowing session happened along the exhibition, during which I invited audiences to do a very simple task: put seeds into soil and draw a label. After the show ends all the plants was transported back to the greenhouse in the Meanwhile Garden. Now they’ve became carrots, peas, rosemaries, cucumbers, chilis, basils, onions, tomatoes.

Haning Object/悬挂雕塑

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.

The Meanwhile Garden, Photo taken in the beautiful summer of 2023/共同花园，拍摄于2023年的伦敦夏日

Film ‘working in the garden’/在社区中心展览的影像作品

The Meanwhile Garden had an exhibition in White City Community Centre in November 2023, A film by Felix Fuller-Kerley shows the volunteers (including Lucy) working in the garden.

This is a film captures a fleeting glimpse into the meanwhile garden, a place where people come to garden and make art and spend time with each other. However the threat of redevelopment lurks in the distance. This film acts as a visual aid to the fabulous writing and illustrations of Lucy Jiachun. Shot on Sony SC5 Video8 Handycam and Sony DCR-SC100E Handycam by Felix Fuller-Kerley.

Words Read By, Lucy Jiachun