22 Feb 2016

Shake Up: Liv Worsnop from Plant Gang

11:07 am on 22 February 2016

Five years into the rebuilding of Christchurch, in our Shake Up series we talk about the legacy of the earthquakes with some of the people making the city a better place.

Liv Worsnop: The best evolution of it is not in the project but in the community that formed around it.

Liv Worsnop: The best evolution of it is not in the project but in the community that formed around it. Photo: Supplied

Liv Worsnop is a connoisseur of plants. In particular, placing plants in the rubble, cracks, and holes in Christchurch’s derelict red zone areas. She doesn’t always work alone – recruiting others through Plant Gang to help her beautify Christchurch.

Where were you when the earthquake struck?

I was in the library at first. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but then it started really shaking. My house fell down in Peterborough St. My parents shipped me home to Hawke’s Bay to recuperate.

But I think I have quite a different perspective of earthquakes than to a lot of other people. I kind of enjoy them. I think they’re a bit of an adrenaline rush, and I really think that it’s mother nature telling us who’s boss.

I also think that we get so affected by earthquakes because of the way we build the world. We build concrete buildings, and plaster over the landscape and it’s like of course shit’s gonna break because the world is suppose to move.


 MORE stories from Christchurch:

Christchurch: The value of a city

> Spraying colour on broken concrete

This is where my home used to be

Off The Runway: Christchurch

> Stomping Grounds: Ladi6


How did the earthquake change your life?

After the quakes I did a project for my final year submission of collecting objects from the central city and catalogued them – arranging them in different ways.

By doing that final project at university I realised that I wanted to do something earthquake-related. So I did another collection, but I did it with plants and I researched their uses and made posters then put them around the city.

I realised plants have such a fascinating relationship and place in post- quake Christchurch. They are resilient.

You know how everyone is like: “Oh, Christchurch people are so resilient”? The plants are resilient they take over and they improve the soil, they look amazing and they give environment for birds, and bees and bugs. After that I started Plant Gang.

How do you decide where to plant, where do the plants come from?

Immediately after the quakes there were a lot of gardens in the residential red zone that I may have borrowed a few plants from, mainly succulents. Sometimes I had permission to plant them, often times I would just find holes and cracks to put them in and just kind of go for it.

The torment of planting is that you never know when an empty lot is going to be built on, or when a hole will be filled.

Would Plant Gang have happened without the earthquake?

Nah, no way.

Why do you enjoy doing planting various plants and flowers?

Our existence is reliant on plants, there is literally nothing else I can think of to put my energy into. Plant life is so abused in our day and age.

The introduction of agricultural and monoculture planting and farming it’s absolutely fucked with biodiversity and that with everything else we’re doing to the planet - we’re screwing with it so bad.

From when you started, how has Plant Gang evolved?

I’ve had probably around 150 volunteers since it started.

The best evolution of it is not in the project but in the community that formed around it. I meet so many people on the street who say: “Oh, you’re that person!”

I’ve collected so many stories, and I have heard of Plant Gang inspiring other people to garden.

Fixing up holes and cracks by replanting in the Garden City.

Fixing up holes and cracks by replanting in the Garden City. Photo: Supplied

Will Plant Gang always be a Christchurch-based thing?

I’ve got my whole life ahead of me, how long can I make earthquake art for?

I’m not that keen to do it forever. The same philosophies and what has driven plant gang will always be part of my life - it will morph, but those core beliefs will still be there but it’s quite specific to Christchurch.

Do you think you lost anything because of the earthquake?

I think the best way to describe it is a loss of potential for the city, but also for our lives and those of future generations. The true potential that can be provided by creatives is not being acknowledged nor implemented.