Final chance to see When Flowers Dream at Kew Gardens
Exhibition must end 5 March 2023
Release date: 13 February 2023
- Last chance to enjoy Pip & Pop’s debut London exhibition
- Vibrant installations create a colourful food fantasia, exploring foods of the future
- Unique collaboration of art and science, must end 5 March 2023
- £1 ticket available for recipients of Universal Credit and Young Persons ticket for 16-29 year olds
When Flowers Dream, the debut London exhibition from award-winning Australian artist Pip & Pop, must end at Kew Gardens on 5 March 2023.
Inspired by mythologies and folklore, When Flowers Dream explores themes of consumption, wish- fulfillment, and seemingly endless abundance, using eye-popping candy colours and a playful sense of perspective to immerse audiences in a uniquely wonderful world.
As well as showcasing a range of sculptural work throughout the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, When Flowers Dream also includes a brand-new installation, created in close collaboration with scientists at Kew. Exploring the idea of a food utopia for the future, this hand-assembled, technicolour installation is filled with foods identified as neglected and underutilised species. Taking the shape of a highly detailed and colourful landscape, the piece also draws inspiration from the imaginary worlds of legends, such as Luilekkelerland and the Land of Cockaigne- mythological realms where everything the eye can see is created from food. Botanical paintings from Kew’s archive will also form a central part of the exhibition, with a colourful selection of 19th-century works showcasing underutilised edible plant species, including Enset Baobab and Granadilla.
As outlined in Kew’s recent State of the World's Plants and Fungi report, 2 in 5 plants worldwide are estimated to be threatened with extinction, and at present we are overly dependent on only a few species for food. This has left the global population vulnerable to malnutrition and climate change. There are more than 7,000 known species of edible plants which we could be eating, and crop diversity is key to feeding the world’s growing population. Research by Kew Scientists and partners all over the world has highlighted plant-based foods of the future including Pandanus, Akkoub and Morama bean, which provide the inspiration behind the installations at the heart of this unique and striking exhibition with its vivid and optimistic vision of foods for the future.
Maria Devaney, Galleries and Exhibitions Leader at RBG Kew adds: “It’s been wonderful to share Pip & Pop’s vibrant food fantasia with visitors of all ages since the exhibition opened here at Kew Gardens last summer, and it’s certainly proven to be hugely popular- a must-see! As well as being a real visual feast, When Flowers Dream, also offers food for thought in terms of the way we encounter and interact with our fragile planet, something which has never been more critical.”
Alongside When Flowers Dream, The Art of Food is presented in Gallery Six. Featuring a series of still life and plant portraiture from the Shirley Sherwood Collection, works on display as part of this exhibition showcase plants which provide carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins and nourishment. Artists featuring in The Art of Food include Phansakdi Chakkaphak, Brigid Edwards and Alvaro E. X. Nunes.
Pip & Pop is supported by the Western Australian Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries as part of the UK/Australia Season 2021-22. The UK/Australia Season is a major new cultural exchange between Australia and the United Kingdom celebrating the diverse and innovative artist communities and cultural sectors of each nation.
At the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, we’re dedicated to harnessing the power of plants and fungi to end the extinction crisis and secure a future for all life on Earth. With Kew’s world-leading research, global partnerships and beloved gardens – home to the world’s most diverse collections of plants and fungi – we’re using our trusted voice to shape policy and practice worldwide. As a charity we rely on the critical support of our visitors, not only to sustain the gardens, but to protect global plant and fungal biodiversity for the benefit of our planet and humanity.
ENDS
Images are available to download here.
Admission to the exhibition is included in a ticket to Kew Gardens. Pre-booking online offers the best value visit.
For more information please contact the Press Office at pr@kew.org.
Notes to Editors
About the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a world-famous scientific organisation, internationally respected for its outstanding collections as well as its scientific expertise in plant diversity, conservation and sustainable development in the UK and around the world. Kew Gardens is a major international and a top London visitor attraction. Kew Gardens’ 132 hectares of landscaped gardens, and Wakehurst, Kew’s Wild Botanic Garden, attract over 2.5 million visits every year. Kew Gardens was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2003 and celebrated its 260th anniversary in 2019. Wakehurst is home to Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, the largest wild plant seed bank in the world. RBG Kew receives approximately one third of its funding from Government through the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and research councils. Further funding needed to support RBG Kew’s vital work comes from donors, membership and commercial activity including ticket sales.
About Pip & Pop
Australian artist Tanya Schultz works under the name Pip & Pop to create immersive and coloursaturated artworks from an eclectic array of materials including sugar, candy, artificial flora, crystals, modeling clay and everyday craft materials. Often ephemeral, her meticulously constructed and highly detailed works embrace notions of abundance and fleeting pleasure. Pip & Pop is fascinated with ideas of paradise and wish-fulfillment described in mythologies, folk tales and ancient maps. The artist draws inspiration from imagined utopias, magical places of abundance and immortality; mythical places that may or may not exist, that are found by chance, and that are impossible to locate again. Her work draws parallels between the illusory nature of imagined worlds and the promise and allure of the commercial world, where we are enticed to partake in happy consumption. With playful working methods, the artist constructs and transforms everyday materials into excessive imaginary landscapes. Pip & Pop works have been exhibited throughout the world including in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, UAE, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, UK, Mexico, USA and New Zealand.
Recent works include; Together we light up the Sky, Museum of Contemporary Art Queretaro, Mexico, In Search of the Moon and the Sun, Taoyuan Museum of Fine Art, Taiwan, and The Cosmic Cave at Meow Wolf, USA. Pip & Pop have collaborated with many companies including Hermès, Adobe, Romance Was Born, LCX,Santa Monica Pier, Mecca Cosmetica and Shinsegae.
About the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art
Located at Kew Gardens in London, the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art is the world’s first display space dedicated solely to this genre. Since it was opened in 2008 by Sir David Attenborough, the gallery has held over 50 exhibitions, welcomed more than a million visitors, and become the hub of the worldwide renaissance of botanical art. Dr Shirley Sherwood OBE studied botany at Oxford University before starting the Shirley Sherwood Collection in 1990. Thirty years on, the Collection includes over 1,000 paintings and drawings, representing the work of over 300 contemporary botanical artists from 36 countries around the world. The collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has been a huge success, with the gallery showcasing a huge diversity of botanical art, raising the profile of the genre and the plants it portrays. Its walls have seen paintings by renowned artists such as Margaret Mee and Rory McEwen, and collections from Brazil, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Japan, Australia, and the USA. As well as displaying pieces from the Shirley Sherwood Collection, the gallery hosts a roster of genre-pushing exhibitions by independent artists. Recent examples include the intricate graphite drawings of the UK’s oldest oak trees by Mark Frith, an immersive installation by British artist Rebecca Louise Law, and sculptures by Dale Chihuly and David Nash. In 2020/21 it hosted Paradise Lost by Jan Hendrix, and continues to explore ideas that question humans’ relationship with the natural world, drawing upon RBG Kew’s own collections and vital scientific research.
About UK/Australia Season 2021-22
The UK/Australia Season is a joint initiative by the British Council and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Season highlights the breadth of partnership between Australia and the UK and aims to deepen and extend cultural connections. The Season started in September 2021 and concludes in March 2022 in Australia and in December 2022 in the UK. The theme ‘Who Are We Now?’ will reflect on our history, explore our current relationship, and imagine our future together. The Season will feature programming for all ages and will celebrate the diversity of cultures and languages in both countries. It will emphasise Australia’s First Nations voices, enable cultural exchange with Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, and the diverse societies that have emerged in both Australia and the UK through migration. ukaustraliaseason.com