The Speculative Herbarium
"Plants are a rich source of medicinal compounds, both for the pharmaceutical industry and as traditional medicines. The climate crisis and overharvesting are having a devastating impact on medicinal plants, with many species facing extinction, posing a significant threat to global health.
The project ‘Mindful Garden’ seeks to raise awareness of "plant blindness"; a phenomenon where people overlook the importance of plants in the biosphere, and inspires action through an interdisciplinary practice-based approach. It has developed tool kit(s) that can be used as educational resources raising awareness of medicinal plant uses and climate change monitoring methods.
Despite this crisis and a long history of preserving plants in herbariums, medicinal plants are often underrepresented in public-facing educational institutions such as museums. ‘The Speculative Herbarium’ exhibition intertwines scientific practices used ‘behind the scenes’ in herbaria with visual art and poetry, offering an insight into the important work occurring in herbaria.
Through a curated collection of pressed, dried, and spirited specimens gathered from my garden on The Wirral, viewers are encouraged not only to recognise the urgent need for plant conservation but also to care towards medicinal plants found locally to preserve them for future generations."
~ Samantha Cooper (Researcher)
Garden Zone
Mindful Garden X Eureka! Science + Discovery
"Many medicinal plants are at risk of extinction due to the current climate crisis. My artwork reveals the intricate, multicellular structures and unique physiological patterns of plants such as basil, chamomile, coriander, mint, sage, and thyme using microscopy as a creative tool. By revealing the unseen properties of these plants, I aim to inspire children and their families to appreciate and care for the natural world, by promoting a deeper understanding of the importance of medicinal plants."
~ Samantha Cooper (Researcher)
"Our ethos at Eureka! Science + Discovery is to encourage the how, why, and what if, within and around us, engaging them with STEM in ways that enhance their knowledge, build their confidence, and empower them. For our summer holiday programme we wanted to highlight some of the more unusual and surprising ways that people are making our world ‘greener’ and encouraging our visitors to look more closely at the world around them, and Samantha’s work complements this beautifully. The close-up images are both artistic and meaningful in our ‘garden zone’, while the colouring sheets adapted from the images have proven to be really popular with all ages."
~ Rachael Bevan (Head of Learning and Inspiration)
A New View: Silica
"It has been a privilege to curate a display at the World Museum, showcasing my practice-based research that aims to educate the public about the uses of commonly misunderstood medicinal plants and the biodiversity crisis facing them. Exploring the museum's vast herbarium was exciting, discovering rare and fascinating herbarium sheets, botanical transportation artefacts, historical botanical illustrations, and medical plant specimens like Horsetail.
While many of these items can't be displayed in public-facing cases permanently due to risk of damage, for our temporary display, I was able to incorporate a 70-year-old Horsetail specimen donated by passionate botanist Jimmy Chubb to give recognition to specimen donators. With the guidance of Art in Science programme leader Mark Roughley and plant physiologist Dr Rachael Symonds from LJMU, and in collaboration with botany curators Wendy Atkinson and Donna Young, I have really enjoyed the experience of curating an art display for the World Museum and sharing my research with their visitors."
Samantha Cooper ~ Researcher
