Plants, Porcelain, People was a collaboration between artist Katie Spragg, curator Caroline Fisher and Norwich International Youth Project; a group of young refugees and asylum seekers living in Norwich.

Inspired by the medieval history of Hungate church, Norwich and global traditions of medicinal plants, this project brings together ideas around healing, care and community. The ceramic artworks produced by Katie in her studio and young people from Norwich International Youth Project, created during four workshops facilitated by Katie, respond both directly and indirectly to the church building and the plants growing in the churchyard; responding to the architecture of the space and the collaging of various elements, such as the glass in the stained glass windows or the layers of different communities using the space over time. Plants represent universal use and understanding across international borders as well as being symbols of hope, resilience and defiance, growing from cracks in walls or sprouting from buildings.

Katie was largely influenced by Medieval Herbals; the compositions, stylised representations of plants and muted palettes of greens and reds; “I was interested in the way fact and fiction seemed blurred in these documents, but also that this didn’t matter, different types of knowledge merge in the meetings of plant and human worlds”. Each plant featured in the ceramic sculptures and tiles could be found growing in the churchyard when Katie visited in March this year, through her research she found that at some point in history all of the plants had some medicinal quality assigned to them, even if now they are known to be poisonous.

The young people's and Katie's work sits side by side in the space. The exhibition took place as part of Norwich and Norfolk Festival.