June 2022

London-based public artist Cristina Ottonello worked with young people aged 12–14 from the Ashbrooke, Chesterfield Close and McAuley estates to explore the extraordinary botanical world on their doorstep. Guided by local botanist Mary Bulfin on foraging walks through the neighbourhood, participants identified "hero plants" whose structural features — the way they adapt, shelter, trap and communicate — could be reimagined through craft, using reusable and recyclable materials. The resulting large-scale artworks were not botanical replicas but imaginative reinterpretations seen through young minds, exhibited at Birr Courthouse as part of Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival.