Installed at London Winter Sculpture Park 2025
Table - What's On Your Plate, is a sculpture that refers to history, the present and the future and so speaks of the power of change. It presents a table in a wild meadow where the meadow itself is brought to table level. Meadow turf below the table to a depth of 30cm is carefully cut and removed without damage, then installed directly above where it came from, onto the top of the table leaving a hole in the earth beneath. The central table is framed by the surrounding wild meadow of native species. Its framing changes throughout the year as species in the meadow change and interact. The work, playing interchangably with 'garden' & 'table' utilises one of our most biodiverse habitats, of which we have only 3% remaining in Britain and is known to store more carbon than heath and shrubland.
Talking about Table can be heard here. Or read below:
‘Is this table for us, or are there other guests? We hear the birds overhead. We see a multitude of plants, microbes, fragments of rock that sustain us and themselves. They are all here, the table is full of the others, and these others give unquestioningly to the foreigner. There are known similarities between information passed in the soil, and that via neurons in our brain. This table is a meeting of minds where hierarchy is questioned. Is the real brain in the table itself, in the ground underneath? The site being an old golf driving range, a brownfield site, including human waste, is represented in the work. A surreal dish of sticks, grass and plastic protrudes from it, another one of stones, berries and a discarded kettle. As land becomes tradable stock or a golf course, nature's growth on this golf course, across man's table seems more pertinent. Come to the table, to the discussion, the meeting of minds, the meeting of ways, the sharing resources, the sharing of knowledge.'
Preliminary graphite study in springtime. British meadow flora, co-habiting species, soil, steel.
Table dimensions: H.0.9m x W.1m x L.6m
Above: March, then June & June deinstallation, durational performance. An exact reverse of the install-
Eighty 30x30x27cm sods (30kg), carefully sliced so as not to damage its structure are removed in order, from the top and replaced exactly in the same place in the ground from where they came. This part of the work takes six days continuous lifting, whilst not stepping on and so not compacting the surrounding land.
Accompanying Table is a downloadable educational pack and lesson plan for secondary schools looking at the works relationship with the ecology of the site and circular economy. The National Society of Education in Art and Design and the National Association for Environmental Education are both involved in its development which forms the groundwork for a larger project; Altruism - Devices For The Yet To Come. This is set of artworks as tools, involving maker-kits and CPD’s to help children navigate the future no matter how good or bad that may be. It will get innovative forms of interdisciplinary cross-curriculum education to 42,000 children in socially deprived areas of the West Midlands and Tower Hamlets in its first phase, then to more schools nationwide thereafter.
What’s On Your Plate - Dinner
Three associated artworks. Exposed artefacts from the land, separated from the work and presented as dishes adjacent to Table. These morsels from the landscape whet the appetite for discussion and workshops to secondary school children regarding ecosystems and circular economy.
What’s On Your Plate - Dinner (image to come)
Detail view of dish two.
Plate, burger, bramble, pickled egg & cleanser.
Film and documentation of lesson plans to be added here soon.
Table and its schools outreach has been supported by Arts Council England and Devise Engineers. They have made possible a sculpture that opens the most pressing questions of our planet in crisis and encourages discussion and solutions.
A robust artwork that fits seamlessly into its landscape and has been designed to leave minimum environmental impact yet survive tough physical conditions. In its current arrangement the sculpture is available for permanent acquisition and/or seasonal installs for set periods of adequate length for cohabiting organisms to overwinter.
Email for more information, ecological assessment, structural calculations, educational packs, risk assessment & acquisition.