Image: Wildcraft - Rose of Jerico - Anna Lucas, 2006 - South London Gallery
Wildcraft
Anna Lucas
South London Gallery 2006
10,000 brown paper bags with gold printed text and drawings, 10 framed blind carbon drawings on botanical archive paper
The project evolved from researching how people were using roots and herbs in Anna's local market in Brixton, South London. Interview transcripts revealed a variety of vocal dialects and interests. People describe the way they use herbs such as Ghanaian ‘reddish’, the wonder herb elecampagne, aloe vera for burns, and chainny root.
Ten of these song-like transcriptions and a drawing of each relevant plant was made into a series of gold-printed brown grocers’ bags, distributed by market traders over several months to reflect the value of anecdotal herbal knowledge.
The project was first commissioned by Rachel Anderson at South London Gallery in 2006 and Anna went on to develop a series of films which were shown as part of a solo show called Here and your here, at FACT, Liverpool. The blindcarbon drawings were shown at South London Gallery in Autumn 2006
The project evolved from researching how people were using roots and herbs in Anna's local market in Brixton, South London. Interview transcripts revealed a variety of vocal dialects and interests. People describe the way they use herbs such as Ghanaian ‘reddish’, the wonder herb elecampagne, aloe vera for burns, and chainny root.
Ten of these song-like transcriptions and a drawing of each relevant plant was made into a series of gold-printed brown grocers’ bags, distributed by market traders over several months to reflect the value of anecdotal herbal knowledge.
The project was first commissioned by Rachel Anderson at South London Gallery in 2006 and Anna went on to develop a series of films which were shown as part of a solo show called Here and your here, at FACT, Liverpool. The blindcarbon drawings were shown at South London Gallery in Autumn 2006