The Kew Gardens Archive Brought to Life: The SS Great Britain Wardian Cases Exhibition at the RHS Flower Show at Hampton Court

11.07.2024
Dr. Suneel Mehmi

There were many unique characteristics of the RHS Flower Show at Hampton Court which I observed as a novice to the event. The variety of our relationships to plants and flowers in art, culture and food. The friendliness of the people there. The almost overwhelming enthusiasm. One such characteristic was that they had plant porters and also that many of the public that did without the plant porters were struggling with the structures of the plants as they flowed within the spaces. The plant structures – so beautiful to behold and so suitable to evolution and adaptation – seemed particularly unwieldy and cumbersome, and their fragility in transit was worrying. I was particularly surprised that at the very start of the morning, people were buying the plants so that they had to carry them around for the whole event, although I suppose that was so that they could get their first choice.

It was in this context that I came across the SS Great Britain Wardian Cases Exhibition. I had already seen the Wardian case at Kew Gardens for our volunteer training there, so it was not an unfamiliar sight, and I even knew some of the history behind this construction. The Wardian case is what I would describe as a life box that protects plants in a microclimate where they only need to be watered once during a two-month crossing.

Something akin to a miniature Victorian glasshouse, although made out of wood, the Wardian case has been described as a revolution in the long distance transportation of plants. Patently, the construction was where the sciences of botany and biology found their sanctuary and spring as the living plants could be studied in Europe rather than grown from seeds in a foreign land. Again, the case allowed the transportation of economically important plants and is thus one of the most significant relics in the history of modern capitalism and global development. One of the most noteworthy connections with Kew gardens is with the exportation of seedlings from our glasshouses to Ceylon and Malaya in the 1870s to begin the rubber plantations. However, Kew Gardens also habitually used Wardian cases to transport plants until 1962.

The display at the RHS Flower show was a preview of the exhibition at the SS Great Britain which is Bristol’s number one visitor attraction. On the ship’s weather deck, six reconstructed Wardian cases are on display for visitors to explore. Each is a replica of the last surviving ship-board example designs which are to be found in the Kew Gardens archive. Based on research from the Brunel Institute, studies of the ship’s cargo manifests, each case is planted with a true-to-life ‘order’. The cases will celebrate the inbound and outbound plant species that the ship transported across the world between 1859 and 1875. The exhibition highlights the role of steamships in the transportation of plants and the making of the modern world.

Along with the exhibition of the Wardian cases, there is other horticultural interest. There is a botany-themed ‘discovery talk’ and horticultural workshops. A ‘botanist’s cabin’ has also been added to the ship’s museum in which you are to become immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of life onboard – a lived experience and introduction to the important work and research of Victorian botanists and ‘plant hunters’.

The exhibition at the RHS Flower Show was an exciting and stimulating moment in time travel to a monumental period in the history of plants and in the makings of a globalised world. Looking at those fairly small boxes with such a colossal impact was a message that just a little thought and a few materials can change reality. The resourcefulness and ingenuity of the human mind can reshape everything. As we try to combat the mass extinction event that is threatening all plant life and diversity, the Wardian case stands as a symbol that improvement can be wrought to transform botany, biology, the life sciences – and the future. And the Wardian case is also a symbol of connection across the world through transport. The future is about more connection across cultures through science and study enabled through constructions like the Wardian case. And more connections with Kew Gardens, its science and its archives and knowledge to inspire the understanding of this living planet and the foundations on which it has been built.

Acknowledgements
Thank you to the SS Great Britain for allowing me to share the photographs and especially to Emily France there who was so helpful with the research and the permissions.

Design Heaven: London College of Communication Shows 2023

13.06.2023

Show Two – Design and Screen: 14-17 June

I sauntered down to the London College of Communication Shows 2023 to see the animation videos. I sat in a packed theatre for a while recalling what it was like to be in that space and at a physical university again. However, after about two hours I wandered out and immediately outside there was a delight that I hadn’t expected – books and design projects created by the students. So I decided to have a look and to pick out some of the projects that I especially enjoyed. All of the projects were beautifully presented, lovely to look at, all stimulating. The students in this country’s university are blessed with great creativity and inspiration, as well as dedication and hard work.

Ananya Dalmia – Maachis

https://www.ananyadalmia.org/

A project by a fellow Indian from Delhi about the visual designs on Indian matchboxes. Ananya collects the matchboxes and has a considerably sized archive of the things. The matchboxes have to communicate visually because India is a visual culture and also because it has a high proportion of illiterates and people that have very different languages from each other, so any text-based message becomes problematic. My favourite in the show, for obvious reasons. I loved her drawings of the goddess Kali and the eyes with the bindi in the middle – it is an obvious fact that a lot of these matchboxes would be in a religious area for lighting incense. Ananya writes ‘these pocket-sized time capsules not only document historical and cultural themes but also embody the kitsch style of India’ and that they embody ‘a visual language that celebrates culture, uniqueness and vibrancy’.

Kate Ruscher – The Game of Life: America Edition

https://www.kateruscher.com/

On her website, Kate writes that she began her creative journey at just two years old. The design she put forward was dark, unique and thought-provoking. Her board game design is based on the premise that life is precarious in America because of guns, so ‘what do you want to do IF you grow up?’ The scenarios in the game are based on real tragedies. As she writes ‘While the board is full of colorful tiles, the black background reflects the dark reality of this uniquely American problem beneath the surface’. This was perhaps one of the most political of the designs and the one that tackled social problems the most (although, in fairness, there was another design about how beauty standards affect women, too). As a transformative message that brings the lived reality of gun crime immediately to the viewer and reader, this was a very successful piece.

Helen Greenwood – This is time for us

Instagram – helen.greenwood_design

This project explored how time could be represented through depictions of the motions of the solar system, but also how Helen’s ‘personal time has been shaped by love and loss’. The book that she presented was done in black with very ordered and controlled illustrations dominated by geometry. This was an interesting project because, of course, for aeons, humans have charted their passage through life with reference to celestial bodies, astrology being one of the main examples. Of particular interest was how a modern-day individual was trying to make a relationship to the wider cosmos through a frame of reference that was non-mythological and non-religious, that was scientific in scope and intent. Can we only relate to the whole of the existence of time and matter through such a rational lens? Or was the non-rational (and rebellious) part the inspired creation linking text and image, which relies on imagination and the linking of things that modern day, secular society has deemed as largely non-related?

Tung Dang – Bloom

https://www.behance.net/songsongtung

A beautiful book full of botanical illustrations by a designer originally from Vietnam. The book is based on the 5 stages of grief theory and is intended as a ‘spiritual friend’. The style struck me as quite restrained, subtle and sophisticated. However, there was substance, since Tung says that the flowers represent resilience: ‘not matter how damaged they are, they will grow and bloom again’. This design is interesting because we live in an an age of environmental disaster, with an ‘instability and uncertainty’ that Tung references when he talks about the survival power of the flowers. Yet we can always look to the power of nature for inspiration and, yes, healing. Anyone that has felt the healing power of trees, plants and animals will love this design and feel an emotional connection with the human being connected with earth, his home. This was one of the most universal and enduring messages in the exhibition, a message of survival against the odds.

Tszka Auyeung – Technology Sobriety

Instagram – @_ousansui

Beautiful designs of furniture, resplendent with all the colours of the rainbow, which contrasts with the transparency of glass. Perhaps we should call it ‘prismatic furniture’ for it reminds me of Newton’s discovery that a transparent prism contained within it all the colours in the spectrum. This project combined AI to create home environments, so it is very current and demonstrates how a responsible and controlled use of AI can transform design possibilities, and ‘lead to more creative and innovative designs’ as Tszka writes (and demonstrates so wonderfully). The future of AI must be that it is subject to human control and inspiration. It is a tool, not a substitute for what makes us uniquely us.

Jingjing Lu – Visual Horizon of Life Philosophy

https://julielu720.wixsite.com/atalanta-jing

This design was intended to make philosophy more comprehensible by presenting it in visual form, a departure from verbal and text-based communication styles. We often use visual presentation in the form of pie charts and bar graphs for maths to help us more readily understand what is abstract, so why not apply the same principle to philosophy, which is also abstract and complicated? What made this project unique for me, was not only its brave originality, but also the fact that it combined Oriental and Western philosophy, so it had that global frame of reference which is so attractive to me. The book and materials were beautifully presented in pink and also relied on a subtle and sophisticated aesthetic.

Michelle Liu – Shapes of Fortunes

http://www.michellelnt.com/

Michelle’s design is ‘a brand that provides a range of shapes that are associated with different types of good fortune’. As form, each shape was unique and visually interesting – they are formed out of plastic, I believe, and are models or sculptures. The contemplation of each shape should be interesting. Michelle studied in Hong Kong and is influenced by Chinese art, which makes me think that the shapes draw a resonance in the long historical tradition of the Chinese looking at oracle bones and their shapes in order to determine the future and success, a message of comfort for the human from the non-human. Why is it that a shape – or any inanimate thing for that matter – can be associated with the idea of luck? Luck exists – we see it all around us (call it fate or what you will). Can it be materialised in concrete form and how? The shapes show us why someone would think this is the case and why they believe that they can capture the fleeting and elusive forms of luck (or fate).

Kumihimo – Japanese Silk Braiding by Domyo Exhibition

Kumihimo – Japanese Silk Braiding by Domyo Exhibition

Japan House (Free, book in advance)

Only until 11 June 2023

07.06.23

Silk is splendour. Silk is shine. Silk is skill. This wonderful material comes from the East and is one of its most remarkable achievements, the mode in which it has produced masterpiece after masterpiece, all of them wearable. The world of fashion is surely indebted beyond measure to the smooth, radiant designs that have been produced in the medium. For me, the beauty of the East is conveyed in the four letters of the name ‘silk’.

It was then with some big expectations today – as a lover of silk (and art, craft, fashion, Asia and the Japanese, as well as the art gallery and the art museum) – that I made my way down to Japan house for the very first time to view the Japanese Silk Braiding (Kumihimo) exhibition. As I came in, I received smile after smile and received a friendly, first class reception from the staff that were on. I was also handed a pile of goodies to take – a beautiful bookmark featuring the coloured silk braids in a rainbow of hues, a wonderfully designed and informative guide, and also a strikingly designed poster (or flyer) for the next exhibition that is coming up (WAVE – Currents in Japanese Graphic Arts, 6 July to 22 October 2023).

Japan house gleams with a minimalist white interior design. It reminded me somewhat of an oyster shell which contains the precious pearl. I was in a hurry after work so I could not take in everything but I got the general impression of painstaking cleanliness and the inspired arrangement of things and interiors that is the hallmark of the modern Japanese aesthetic.

The exhibition ‘explores the history, techniques and potential of kumihimo silk braiding’, with some focus on the craftspeople of the Domyo workshop which has been in business since 1652 CE and is in its tenth generation of artists (guide).

What is a great source of pride to Asian people (Indian) like me is the fact that our civilisation has been around in continuous form for several thousand years, unlike other ‘great’ civilisations that have fallen. So, I was glad that it was a similar story here with the Kumihimo. The silk braids have endured in some form in Japan since the time of the Jōmon people and early pre-history (if not in silk). We are seeing old knowledge extending into the present and into the future with technological advances in this exhibition, as new worlds of geometry and mathematical genius are being created with continuous forms throughout the greater part of post-ancient human history.

However, the Japan exhibition is not parochial. There is a global dimension to the braids because they have been shared across cultures across the world, which the curator was careful to show. There are examples from Tibet and Peru, for instance.

I was mesmerised by the videos showing the making of the silk braids. The one where the cords were dyed purple and washed in a vessel of water was a piece of art in itself, a metaphor for the act of creation out of the waters that have given humankind birth and belonging on this planet.

It was fascinating to see the use of the silk braids on armour as well as in religious sutras or scrolls and for such uses as the ‘internal organs placed inside a sculpture’. The designs were wonderful, a real virtuoso exhibition of the combination of skill, maths and technology to create beauty. My absolute favourites were, firstly, the ornamental braid from the Buddhist temple Hōryū-ji. It is a majestic piece in red and gold, with diagonals like the third eye of the Hindu god Shiva (to me). There are golden beads interlaced in the design which remind me of the organic shape of seeds. Secondly, I loved the other ‘multiple diamond’ designs done in brown and creme, achingly wonderful. Again, I particularly enjoyed the deconstruction of historical costumes such as a Victorian dolman which the workshop has used to recreate these splendours of the Japanese people.

Of great interest to me (science is another one of my hobbies) was the use of Kumihimo to create new mathematical structures and experimentations in concrete geometry. The model that had been created was an amazing piece of design innovation and a contribution to our shared knowledge as a species. Such is the influence and intellectual power of the Japanese people, all based on traditional knowledge and its reworking into modern day life – an example and a contrast for the countries in Asia that have been colonised and want to forgot their customs and local knowledges in favour of economic servitude to their erstwhile colonisers and their knowledges (or rather, complex of power/knowledge).

This silk braid exhibition is an experience that I will never forget. It had everything: a beautiful setting, beautiful people, beautiful things, a beautiful philosophy, a beautiful lesson. I have always admired the creativity, discipline and historical stewardship of the Japanese people and they never disappoint me with their arts and crafts. Japan house is a testament to the radiance of the people of the rising sun, and so is this exhibition. And to Japan’s generosity to the world. For as I made my way out of the exhibition, the smiling lady on the counter offered me a crane made out of origami which I had admired. It is just another of the gifts that the Japanese have given me in this life, this glorious culture that adopted our Indian religion of Buddhism and became our brothers and sisters.

The Infinite Colourful Light of the Moving Kaleidoscope – The Spaces In-Between, Tottenham Court Road

The Infinite Colourful Light of the Moving Kaleidoscope – The Spaces In-Between, Tottenham Court Road

08.04.23

FREE ENTRY

Art by Rupert Newman (light artist) and PixelArtworks

It happened unexpectedly. A fine example of serendipity, the right place at the right moment. I had just spent a few hours browsing in Foyle’s and a small independent second-hand bookshop and was just making myself towards Tottenham Court Road. I was musing over the books I had seen and I was thinking to myself that I certainly wasn’t rich enough to have all the books that I wanted to read and to have to keep in my own personal library and to share with my kids. That privilege was reserved for the billionaire or the British Museum.

And there it was. The Infinite Colourful Light of the Moving Kaleidoscope… An awe-struck mass of bodies within a space carved out by futuristic light, right next to the station.

The space is described as a ‘digital portal’ and we are meant to ‘discover a prismatic new experience’. The location of the site is important because it is ‘In-Between’ spaces. One of the installations (or ‘spaces’) reacts to your body as you stand before it. The display is in front of you, above, around four walls. It is a type of immersive, interactive art (four dimensional, they sometimes call it). The experience is touted as semi-religious and the installation is described on a panel as a crystalline cathedral of light’.

So this is why I call it ‘The Infinite Colourful Light of the Moving Kaleidoscope ‘. Light, of course, is associated with Christianity, with enlightenment, progress and truth, things that capitalists like to give lip service to when they put us out of work because of computers and technology (it is always right to rail against the so-called technological progress of the capitalists, since this is the weapon of their hubris). I was in a Chapel service recently and they called the Christian God’s kingdom a place of ‘infinite light’. Art is akin to the Christian religion in our age, perhaps its best substitute. When you go to an art gallery, there is a hush like there is in the chapel. There is a reverent lowering of the eyes before the icons of the age, just as they gaze up at the icons in a religious setting. All the visual display is impregnated with a colossal and sublime meaning, with divine beauty that is not of this earth… For art is considered to be of the spirit for some (not for me, it is still earthly and profane).

As I moved within this computer generated, geometric space, encased in the ingenuity of man and machine, within light, art, animation, music, the energy of the crowd, I was certainly impressed. It was a novel experience. It was a beautiful experience. Yes, it was even a beautiful experience.

Yet where was the meaning behind it all? I read the panels for each of the three different spaces. There were the described themes. Firstly, ‘A Step Beyond’, the immersion in another digital world. Yet how different was it from the contemporary enveloping of the subject in the age of the computer? Was the artwork just priming us as digital subjects, a repetition of what was happening in our technologically mediated reality? Secondly, ‘Transcendence’. Yes, the art is beautiful. The beautiful forms of nature are rejuvenated in an encounter with geometry. The translation of the subtle mathematics of the world into the mathematical language of geometry. But what does the viewer get from this? A strict regularisation and stylisation of the beauty of what is for what can be imagined is the staple of most art, which is abstract at heart (even within supposed realism). But what is the status of this new abstraction for us now and why are we being placed within it in this space? Is awe for nature to be replaced for the awe of what man and machine in unity can now do, what imagination and computer code can achieve? ‘Tessellations’ was more of the same thing: animated geometric patterns filled with light. A world of code that surrounds us, like the Matrix, changing, transforming, not sending out any obvious message, not allowing any thought but awe…

Perhaps the difficulty is not the lack of the message but the lack of the training we have to try and understand abstract art and the elusiveness of meaning in abstract, geometric art itself. Perhaps I do not understand the proposed religiosity behind the installation. Certainly, geometric art figures in Islam in Mosque designs and calligraphy as an expression of faith. Perhaps there is a feeling of endless harmony and connection with things that the piece is supposed to evoke. I did not get this feeling. I got the beauty. I did not get the sense of the digital sublime which all the spaces were meant to evoke. I did not feel engulfed, threatened (perhaps the wonders of the technology are supposed to threaten to usurp man). I lack fear – Punjabi men are afraid of nothing and no-one. Especially not code or geometry filled with light. For me, the exhibit was a good waste of time just before I got onto the Tube, but not an inspirational experience or one which provoked much thought, except for the vague idea that I could get together a venue for something like it and make a bit of money off it… To be really honest, it was like being in a screensaver.