"We are what we eat" event joins Hull: City of Culture 2017

2pm-4pm Saturday 7 October 2017, Hull & East Riding Museum

A group of four artists are set to use food as the inspiration for a free series of films, performances and interactive workshops at Hull & East Riding Museum on Saturday 7 October, for ‘We Are What We Eat’, the latest event in the three-year Surroundings programme, created by arts innovators Invisible Dust and Humber Museums Partnership.

“Making art about food is fun, on 7 October adults and children will be able to sample sensory workshops, contribute and learn new recipes, view theatre about vegetables and see an extraordinary dance with dough. ‘We Are What We Eat’ also gets us thinking about where our food comes from and supporting local food growers and farmers. We all love food and the artists will be sharing their own experiences and ideas at our family-friendly event,” comments Alice Sharp, Director and Curator, Invisible Dust.

Each artist looks at food from a completely different angle and explored ideas with Invisible Dust’s science advisors Melanie Giles and Lewis Holloway. Laura Wilson looks at our daily bread and explores dough as a living, continually changing organism. Hull-writer Dave Windass looks at his own relationship with the common vegetable with a humorous live performance of his writings by actor Charlotte Sellers, and Gayle Chong Kwan, who has produced works for the Tate Modern, invites people to explore food using all their senses with innovative experiences that are both fun and thought-provoking.

New Zealand artist Ahilapalapa Rands, who has started a year residency at Sewerby Hall & Gardens, Bridlington, will also be looking for looking to visitors to bring along their recipe books as part of a ‘Community Cookbook’ artwork she will be creating later in the year. “Celebrity cook books grace so many kitchen shelves these days, but a fascinating piece of history can be found in handwritten recipe books that have been handed down through generations – unusual ingredients, techniques and dishes that say so much about our environment, culture, taste and even attitude towards food and nutrition – we’d love for visitors to share with us their memories and recipes one the day, and then return to see the finished work at Sewerby Hall early in 2018,” adds Alice Sharp.

Surroundings: We Are What We Eat runs from 2.00pm to 4.00pm on Saturday 7 October at Hull & East Riding Museum in Hull. Admission and participation in the workshops is completely free, with no need to book in advance.

Many of the activities will be on-going in a marquee outside the museum, but anyone wishing to watch Dave Windass’s ‘The Common Vegetable’ monologue should join the promenade performance at 2.30pm at the museum entrance, before setting off around Hull’s Museums Quarter.

The event will also see the world premiere of Laura Wilson’s five-minute film, ‘Milling About’, which will be showing in the Archaeology Galleries of the museum until 3 December. The film explores the Humber region’s history as a key grain producer for the North of England, and how this was used in the production of bread over hundreds of years.

For more details, please visit www.invisibledust.com/project/surroundings

ENDS

For further media information or photographs, please contact:
Jay Commins
Pyper York Limited
Tel: 01904 500698
Email: jay@pyperyork.co.uk

Photo caption:
“Flour, dough and other staple foods – including curiously shaped vegetables – have inspired film, dance and live performance, with free displays and food-related workshops at Hull & East Riding Museum on Saturday 7 October from 2-4pm. The event is part of ‘Surroundings: We Are What We Eat’, an arts project curated by Invisible Dust for Humber Museums Partnership. Pictured is volunteer, 21 year-old Jess Askins.”
Please credit photographer: Charlotte Graham/Invisible Dust.
More images in the series in portrait, landscape and square formats are available for download from: https://canvas.vuelio.co.uk/pyper-york-ltd/invisibledust



Notes to editors

Surroundings
Curated by Invisible Dust and bringing together artists and scientists to produce artworks that explore the environment, Surroundings is a new three-year programme of artist residencies and events with different but interrelating environmental themes. The theme for year one (2017) is food and looks at the impact of seasons on fruit and vegetable production by three artists - Gayle Chong Kwan, Laura Wilson and New Zealand artist Ahilapalapa Rands - and a writer: Dave Windass. This year artist advisors include social scientist Lewis Holloway, Reader In Geography at the University of Hull, who has a specialist interest in sustainability, food, farming and the countryside.

Invisible Dust
Invisible Dust is a commissioning organisation that works with leading artists and scientists to produce new and exciting works of contemporary art. It provides the opportunity for both disciplines to share and explore common ground. Invisible Dust aims to produce significant and far reaching artist commissions both in the UK and internationally, as well as supporting the creation of new scientific ideas whilst engaging audiences with large scale events, education and community activities. In 2015 Invisible Dust was awarded £450,000 by the Wellcome Trust’s Sustaining Excellence Programme part of which supports Surroundings. Invisible Dust has just been awarded National Portfolio Status by Arts Council England. Past artists include Turner Prize winners Elizabeth Price and Jeremy Deller and in 2016 ‘Human Sensor’ by Kasia Molga attracted 1.6 million viewers worldwide. www.invisibledust.com

About The Wellcome Trust
Wellcome exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive. We’re a global charitable foundation, both politically and financially independent. We support scientists and researchers, take on big problems, fuel imaginations, and spark debate.

Humber Museums Partnership
The Humber Museums Partnership (HMP) consists of the museum services of Hull, North Lincolnshire and the East Riding. It was formed in 2014 to develop collaborative working for the purpose of delivering better services to the public. The three museum services of HMP hold extensive collections of art, archaeology, social history, rural history, maritime history and world cultures. They work together to promote the heritage of the Humber region and the wider world. Humber Museums Partnership was awarded £547,400 through an Arts Council Ambition for Excellence for ‘Surroundings’. www.humbermuseums.com