Food: we love it and we can’t live without it. But the world is changing, and so is what we eat.
Step into the future of food at Kew's event of the summer and discover how we can transform our planet for good through four new art installations and a major exhibition across the Gardens.
There will also be a whole host of talks, guest menus by inspiring chefs as well as weekend drop-in workshops and activities – plenty to sink your teeth into!
There's even a daily free walking tour about edible plants and the future of food in a changing climate.
Join us at Kew to discover what we can do together to combat climate change and biodiversity loss, to protect our food from extinction and secure a sustainable future for us all.
Our daytime programme includes:
Each installation commissioned for Kew explores a particular food theme: Food and Wellbeing; Future Foods; Food and Biodiversity Loss; and Foods and Livelihoods.
1. Food and Wellbeing
Trolls (Matt and Helen), 2022 by Thomas Dambo
Thomas Dambo is a recycle art activist making gentle giants from scrap wood, twigs and debris.
In Scandinavian folklore, trolls have a lesson to teach humankind. Dambo’s art playfully uses mythology to draw humans off the couch and towards activism, to address the critical environmental challenges we face today.
For Kew, Dambo has created two giant trolls eating from galvanised steel bins, strewn with vegetables. The trolls show us the benefits of healthier, more sustainable, plant-based diets and eating together on our mental and nutritional health, and also ask us to consider the food we waste.
Dambo hopes that while enjoying his work, you also look around and discover the wonders of the world the trolls are protecting. ‘Why would people care about protecting nature if they are not connected to it and reminded that it's there?’ says Dambo.
2. Future Foods
Future Food Stories by Sharp & Sour
Future Food Stories reflects on one of the most underestimated consequences of the climate crisis: the extinction of our foods.
With rising temperatures, water scarcity, extreme weather patterns, habitat loss, deforestation, and vulnerability to disease, many of our staple foods such as potatoes, chickpeas, corn and coffee are under threat.
This installation focuses on the vulnerabilities of each of these foods, while proposing possible solutions to the challenges they face: from the importance of traditional knowledge, to the innovations Kew Science has been developing in collaboration with global partners.
Come share your views on what the future of food may look like and learn how you can help tackle the global crisis.
3. Food and Biodiversity Loss
The Breach (Labyrinth of Monoculture), 2022 by Leandro Erlich
Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich creates installations with fluid boundaries that often challenge our perceptions of reality. His work is wonderfully escapist, allowing visitors to totally immerse themselves in a piece of art, if only for a moment.
Inside The Breach, visitors can walk through fields of single crop species (monocultures) and biodiverse landscapes that are infinitely replicated.
Erlich’s labyrinth serves as a powerful reminder of the impact our agricultural processes for food have placed on the biodiversity of our planet.
‘Our shared home on this planet is a place of intricate beauty, whose infinite rooms are adorned by interconnected ecosystems and stunning organic intelligence,’ says Erlich.
4. Foods and Livelihoods
Shooting at Hunger by Serge Attukwei Clottey
Ghanaian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey presents ideas around food hunger, food scarcity, preservation, and the personal impact of a changing planet.
The title Shooting at Hunger is a translation of Homowo – the harvest festival celebrated by the Ga people of Ghana. Homowo remembers the famine that once befell their communities in pre-colonial Ghana. Today, climate change, rising global temperatures and drought are increasingly resulting in poor crop yields which disproportionally impact both farmers and the communities they feed.
Using discarded plastics found near his home of Accra, Ghana, Clottey shapes, cuts, weaves and binds refuse into large-scale sculptural installations, designed to engage viewers with issues that impact communities around the world.
Shooting at Hunger takes the form of a vibrant yellow Kufuor gallon, a colourful container used in Ghana for storing and transporting water and food.
When Flowers Dream by Pip & Pop
Explore our newly commissioned exhibition by Australian contemporary artist Tanya Schultz (aka Pip & Pop).
Inspired by themes of abundance, food utopias and folklore, Pip & Pop’s enticing pastel-coloured artworks challenge our perceptions of food consumption.
Stretching across five gallery spaces, the exhibition presents an imaginary landscape of fruits, plants and seeds, inspired by Kew's archives of botanical illustration and referencing foods particularly under threat from the growing climate crisis.
This highly colourful and engaging exhibition focuses on those neglected and edible plants which may prove to be the food crops of our future, suggesting a more sustainable and optimistic outcome for us all.
The Art of Food
Accompanying When Flowers Dream in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery is a stunning display of food-related botanical art from the Shirley Sherwood Collection, curated by Dr Sherwood.
Our summer season of events wouldn’t be complete without the chance to taste some delicious food.
We’ve invited four renowned chefs to respond to our Food Forever programme, each devising a delicious menu for the Pavilion Bar and Grill in collaboration with CH&Co Executive Chef Brwa Ahmad.
Anna Jones | 19 May to 15 June 2022
Anna is a cook, stylist and author. She believes that vegetables should be put at the centre of every table and is led by the joy of food and its ability to affect change in our daily lives.
Her most recent book ‘One’ is a Sunday Times Bestseller and topped the independent bookseller charts for weeks on end.
Zoe Adjonyoh | 16 June to 13 July 2022
Chef, writer, and founder of Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen, Zoe has been pioneering modern West African food since 2010. In 2017 she released her debut cookbook, Zoe's Ghana Kitchen, landing her a spot on The New York Times Best Cookbooks of 2021.
Zoe’s mission has always been to bring the great flavours of West Africa to a wider audience.
Tom Hunt | 14 July to 10 August 2022
An award-winning chef, writer and presenter, Tom published Eating for Pleasure, People & Planet in 2020. He writes about food and the environment, and founded Forgotten Feast, a social enterprise promoting sustainable food through dining and celebration.
Tom’s approach to food is rooted in its connection to climate change, championing eating that prioritises the environment without sacrificing pleasure, taste and nutrition.
Dr Rupy Aujla | 11 August to 18 September 2022
Dr Rupy Aujla believes in the power of food and lifestyle change and is a leading voice on how nutrition can beat disease and improve health.
He is an NHS doctor and the founder of ‘The Doctor’s Kitchen’, which strives to inspire and educate people about the wonders of food and medicinal effects of eating well.
He is a Sunday Times bestselling author, and recently launched his cooking app ‘The Doctor's Kitchen’.
Our extra events include:
Join us in the iconic Temperate House for an evening of thought-provoking discussion with leading writers, artists, chefs, Kew scientists and horticulturists.
Each evening covers a different topic, exploring the key theme of our summer season: the future of food in a changing climate, from understanding the true cost of our weekly shop to transforming our food systems for tomorrow
Will you join the conversation?
Find out more and book tickets
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