The Chimera Plantarium Project
The Chimera Plantarium Project is a collaboration between artist Chiara Dellerba and children at Edna G Olds Academy, as part of the Making Place programme, to design a public mural for a newly developed area of Lenton.
We tend to think of cities as concrete jungles, but our urban environment is immersed in plant life. Wild plants have taken root along roadsides and chain-link fences, between cracks of pavement, and within vacant lots, rubble dumps and highway medians. Spontaneously propagating, these resilient plants find distinctive niches to thrive in and inhabit our most derelict landscapes. The environmental benefits of these ‘weeds’ go widely unrecognised, however reframing this often invisible urban ecology as a beneficial amenity offers a fresh perspective on our neighbourhoods.
Working with the Year 5 Class at Edna G Olds Academy, Chiara Dellerba invited children to map their locality, re-imagining the area from the perspective of plants. Through a series of workshops they created The Chimera Plantarium: a visual, imaginative archive where human and non-human forms come together as an hybrid species – half plant and half human.
The results of their collaborative process became the material for a new public artwork that was launched in October 2019. A series of unique ceramic tiles were created by local potter Eric Foxley and installed in the surrounding bank.
This was followed by a second mural, commissioned specifically for and by Edna G Olds Academy, installed outside the school in March 2020.
This project is kindly supported by Nottingham City Council.
The Herbarium
A series of illustrations and descriptions, created by Chiara Dellerba, of some of the wild plants which inspired the Chimera Plantarium project. Please click on each image to expand.
