“Perfect Flower” is a collective inquiry into “Safety for Women, Girls, and Gender-Diverse People in Public Spaces.” The project was shaped by a team of queer and gender ambiguous people including young participants, who collaborated with a multidisciplinary group of architects, a choreographer, a writer, a photographer, and youth workers.

The creative process began with the idea that over 90% of flowering plant species are hermaphroditic, possessing both male and female reproductive organs. These are termed “perfect flowers” by biologists. This concept inspired us to approach public spaces with the perspective that the world itself is queer. We reframed the narrative, placing queer and gender-diverse individuals and their lived experiences at the center of our exploration. By positioning ourselves alongside plant life rather than above it, we focused on the interconnectedness between humans, plants, and animals.

This new sense of belonging and an enriched understanding of nature, biology, and diversity empowered the young participants to create costumes from discarded cardboard, transforming themselves into what they called a “queer plant family.” As one participant remarked, “I have never done anything as creative in my life. I have never made anything and been proud of it.”

The collaboration highlighted the value of artistic and creative experimentation, inadvertently revealing a broader lack of exposure to art education and spaces where young people can exercise their imagination. Establishing a sense of belonging and creating a space where fluidity and ambiguity could thrive were essential for engaging the youth in exploring “Safety for Women, Girls, and Gender-Diverse People in Public Spaces.” This demographic, often underrepresented in consultations, played a critical role in shaping the project’s evolution.

Commissioned by the LLDC to develop creative engagement strategies, our team was given the freedom to experiment and explore. The collaboration with the LBN Youth Empowerment Service Participation Team and their LGBTQIA+ youth group was instrumental in facilitating the creative process and creating a safe space for dialogue.

Our explorations focused on the Pudding Mill Lane area, adjacent to Queen Elizabeth Park, a familiar site to the young participants. They reflected on the challenging environment of the location, guided by the question, “What kind of life does this space support?” Viewing the urban landscape through a queer ecology lens, “Perfect Flower” encouraged participants to consider their relationship to nature, space, and visibility. Queer ecology, a perspective that draws from nature to challenge conventional standards of sexuality, gender, and biology, emphasized the kinship between humans, plants, and animals.

Following these site investigations, the young people engaged in workshops to create costumes from salvaged cardboard boxes and spray paint. These fantastical garments exaggerated their silhouettes, concealed their bodies, and explored their existence in space, challenging traditional notions of gender. The exploration opened horizons, inviting speculation on alternative narratives and pushing the boundaries of conventional expression.

For the final performative action, the participants curated their presence in the public space of Pudding Mill Lane. Through collaboration with a choreographer and photographer, this performative action became a photographic object that has been exhibited. “Perfect Flower” foregrounds an approach to safety rooted in belonging and an enriched understanding of nature, biology, and diversity.

Engagement principles

To enhance the diversity of participants in engagement and consultation processes, we extracted key learnings from the “Perfect Flower” project to formulate guiding principles for engagement. This list is intended as an incomplete starting point, encouraging further exploration and embracing ambiguity in public engagement processes.

1. Consider creative engagement as a collaboration with people on equal terms and an exploratory process that creates room for surprises, unexpected outcomes and knowledge exchange.

2. Reach out and form partnerships with local organisations that already work with hard-to-reach demographics under-represented at consultations but who have valuable insights to contribute.

3. Invest time into creating a safe environment where diverse groups of people can build trust and take part in collective making and thinking. Allow time for repetition, iteration and reflection.

4. Create an entry point to engaging with complex matters that focuses on a sense of belonging and is relevant to our time and shared concerns. Entering a subject area from an oblique angle rather than ‘head on’ can reveal new insights, inspire and draw out less obvious connections.

5. Recognising and respecting people’s sensitivities and boundaries is important to the creative process. People who engage creatively need to be seen, heard and given time to feel secure in expressing themselves.

6. Creative engagement means actively searching for something new. The outcomes are most likely ambiguous but inspiring. Creative engagement is not seeking for a proof of concept nor is it an extractive process that benefits only one side. It is a process that relies on mutual exchange, respect and care.

7. Identifying and agreeing tangible objectives for the creative engagement process and defining ways of communicating outcomes provides clarity to participants. It is important to provide a route map on how outcomes are utilised and what they might impact in the future.

8. Seeking out opportunities by professional teams to share skills and knowledge as part of the creative engagement process supports the educational and professional development of participants and enriches the process.

9. Forget about hierarchies, collaborate with people. Participate in the process and become part of the creative engagement. Enjoy!

Perfect Flower exhibitions

The photography and cardboard body extensions have been exhibited at APT Gallery as part of Fest en Fest (June 2024), Central Saint Martins as part of the TUS (take up space) exhibition (Feb 2024) and will be shown at Strateford Youth Zone in autumn 2024.