The Wonder Project

The Wonder Project deepens our connection to landscape and invites audiences to become more mindful of the intricate relationships within nature; stories that inevitably involve us.

Unfolding along a two-mile journey towards sunset, visitors encountered newly commissioned soundscapes, sculptures and art installations inspired by Wakehurst’s botanic plants and the scientific research carried out in the Millennium Seed Bank, and across Kew’s global network.

Much of Kew’s current research is about keeping humanity away from the brink of ecological collapse, one wonders if this is possible? There is research with indigenous groups, listening to their innate knowledge of their environments; the search for wild relatives to safeguard tired, domesticated crop species; the banking of billions of seeds, whose homelands are being overrun by seemingly, insatiable human activity. Surrounding this quest for knowledge sits a dynamic ecosystem of seeds, trees, fungi, birds, insects, scientists, horticulturalists; Kew is rife with organisms wondering.

Artwork and Artists

The commissioned installations are developed from artist-scientist collaborations and ongoing conversations. Each multi-sensory experience highlights a different aspect of the research undertaken at Kew Gardens, Wakehurst.

And Yet We Grow and The Last of Us by Larry Achiampong, with Aida Amoako.

Sculpture and text

Achiampong’s new site-specific work is formed of four text-based sculptural elements embedded in the grounds of Kew Wakehurst accompanied by written prose in collaboration with writer Aida Amoako. As part of his ongoing ‘Relic Traveller’ these sculptural/textual elements reference the flourishing and decay of diasporic and indigenous bodies. The sculptural features of this new work are complemented by texts given to attendees on a sheet of fragile paper. Taking the form of four individual black boards with hand-written testimonies written in a white chalk, once exposed to the elements become part of the emotional landscape.

Larry Achiampong's solo and collaborative projects employ imagery, aural and visual archives, live performance and sound to explore ideas surrounding class, cross-cultural and post-digital identity.

With works that examine his communal and personal heritage – in particular, the intersection between pop culture and the postcolonial position, Achiampong crate-digs the vaults of History. These investigations examine constructions of ‘the self’ by splicing the audible and visual materials of personal and interpersonal archives, offering multiple perspectives that reveal entrenched socio-political contradictions in contemporary society.

Achiampong has exhibited, performed and presented projects at locations including Tate Britain/Modern, London; The Institute for Creative Arts, Cape Town; David Roberts Art Foundation, London; SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin; Prospect New Orleans, New Orleans; Diaspora Pavilion – 57th Venice Biennale, Venice; and Somerset House, London.

Achiampong is nominated for the Jarman award 2018 for the work ‘Finding Fanon’, a collaboration with David Blandy.

Sonic Woodland by Joe Acheson

Soundscape

For The Wonder Project, Joe collaborated with sound designer and spatial audio engineer Tim Southorn, to create a Sonic Woodland installation in a glade at Kew Wakehurst, building a multi-channel sound system to move sounds around and across trees and the ground to reflect the mycorrhizal symbiosis between the trees and the mushroom networks.

Joe Acheson is a composer, producer, sound artist mainly known for releasing music as Hidden Orchestra. Aside from Hidden Orchestra, Joe makes music from found sounds, and undertakes music and sound commissions from the likes of The British Library, the BBC, The National Trust, and The Saatchi Gallery.

Systema

Multi-sensory walk.

An ecosystem is defined by complex connections, which include us. Through The Wonder Project we aimed to reveal these connections, elastic bridges between species, a world of balance and cooperation, where biology, physics and chemistry are constantly shaping what we see, hear, feel, smell and taste.

Part 1

Directed by Dzifa Benson, Ways of being is aimed at opening up these pathways, revealing these bridges, inviting you to take off your shoes and wander about Wakehurst like an artist or scientist. Performers include: Orna Salinger, Dipo Ola and Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson

Part 2

We find ourselves needing to preserve our environments. Humanity is in control of what survives, what thrives and what disappears. Billions of seeds are stored in the Millenium Seed Bank a repository of life on Earth, far more valuable than any financial bank. The seeds here are provided absolute protection, from nuclear radiation and airplane crash, but will they ever see the sun?

The Crop Wild Relatives global research network is just one of a number of scientific research groups whose home is the Seedbank, their main task is to re-diversify crop species, safeguarding their futures, and with it ours.

Part 3

Our relationship with the environment has radically shifted throughout the last millenia. From effective hunter gatherers to exploiting our resources, we have had a striking impact in our environment, altering ecosystems and even climates and oceans.

Turn to your image reflected on the mirror and wonder, what is our place on the Earth? What influence do you have on the ecosystems around you? What is your relationship with the plants, fungi and animals at Wakehurst?

Part 4

Sunset is a universally appreciated moment - it brings all living things together, sensually, hormonally and chronologically - this is a global community.

It takes 4 minutes for the sun to reach and then sink below the horizon, and though we may not see this event, we acknowledge it. We invite everyone present at The Wonder Project, from the people to fungi and trees, to witness the ebbing of the light on this day, a unique collective, that was different from yesterday and will be different again