The Allotment

The physical activity and communal interaction needed to develop and cultivate a successful plot of land brings important benefits to health, especially mental health. Below, David Jacques explains how he, Carl Hunter and Clare Heney documented a project working with traumatised people on an allotment, which led to an exhibition in Liverpool and Cologne.

This exhibition was the result of an attachment over eighteen months or so for Carl, Clare and myself, to a project that supports people seeking asylum in Great Britain. Most came from the war torn Balkan States. The situation in Great Britain regarding people seeking asylum determines that whilst applications are being assessed or reviewed the applicant cannot undertake any paid work. The reliance on social benefits and the lack of a sympathetic support system has led to many of these people feeling isolated, vulnerable and undervalued.
Located on a municipal allotment in our hometown, Liverpool, the project challenges this predicament head-on. It provides the chance to get involved in the physical activity and communal interaction needed to develop and cultivate a successful plot of land. It also offers support in any attempts to address welfare problems and most importantly employs the services of a psychotherapist on site.
As artists visiting the allotment project, our relationship with the participants grew over a lengthy period through trust and friendship.
The work we have produced resulted from our being given access and insights into the lives of this group of people.

The Artworks

The drawings depict some of the things that have been successfully grown on the allotment, mostly by our friend Njasi. They are realised somewhat like the archetypal 'botanical study', a form long associated with aspects of commerce, science and colonisation.
In attempting to subvert this form, each drawing ('specimen') is accompanied by a description ('classification') - though not rendered in the formal, academic language as expected - rather Njasi has written in his native Kosovan about how he grew the plant himself, on a municipal allotment in Liverpool…
Carl & Clare's photographs, shown at the exhibition, were produced in tandem with their film work. Three short films have since been completed and shown on Channel 4 and a feature film is currently in production.

Sue Hunter speaks to the project Director

I interviewed Margrit Ruegg, Senior Psychotherapist and Project Director of the Family Refugee Support Project.
This project has links with the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture in London, who run a Natural Growth Project, a horticultural therapy service.
Margrit told me of the importance of the Allotment for the health, especially mental health, of the refugee families.
These families have all suffered trauma from war, torture and the loss of their homes. They were driven out of their villages by the army and have seen their houses burned to the ground; some have been used as human shields, many families split up.
On arriving here most refugees don't want to or can't talk about their experiences, but they suffer flashbacks and nightmares constantly.
Adding to their stress is the uncertainty of their asylum applications, the waiting in limbo for Home Office decisions. Whenever someone is deported it has a terrible effect on everyone else.
By working on the land, alongside each other and with Margrit, gradually they relax enough to talk about the horrors they have gone through in an informal way.
The physical outdoor work of planting, growing and harvesting food itself has a healing effect, and can bring back happier memories of working the land before the war.
Because of language barriers, the gardening works as a metaphor for their uprooted lives, and the growing plants match their growing healing process. This work "Under the Sky", as Margrit put it, in touch with the elements, helps everyone sleep better, and provides a haven to escape from grim housing conditions.
Another benefit comes from the men being able to grow and provide food for their families and friends, a great confidence-booster, after having lost everything.
Finally, I refer you to David Jacques' "botanical" drawings of the actual vegetables grown on the allotment. I visited David Jacques' tiny studio where they were being exhibited: they were not only beautiful, but most moving, as they were a joint creative process between the artist and the man who grew these plants.
What was most touching and significant, each drawing was also signed by the gardener himself, as well as the artist.