Botanical Leadscape

Commissioned by Killhope Lead Mining Museum

Botanical Leadscape is a large-scale participatory mural commissioned by Killhope Lead Mining Museum, developed through a series of botanical printmaking workshops with local schools and the wider public. The project explored the relationship between lead-mining heritage and metalliferous plant life that thrives in contaminated soils.

Participants produced mono-prints directly from non-protected foliage using gelatine plate printing. The process emphasised careful observation, touch, and respect for the living environment, connecting botanical form to industrial and geological histories.

The project comprised six school workshops and four public workshops. Each session contributed individual prints that were collectively assembled into a permanent mural consisting of 625 prints. Installed within the museum, the mural functions as both an artwork and an educational resource, foregrounding the entanglement of ecology, geology, and human labour within the lead-mining landscape.

Botanical Leadscape demonstrates how participatory arts practice can translate complex environmental histories into accessible, tactile forms, while fostering collective attention to plant life, material processes, and place.