Hope, growth, and positive action in a climate crisis dominated by fear and paralysis. Science Gallery London presents ‘Vital Signs: another world is possible’

Vital Signs: another world is possible is Science Gallery London’s new, free exhibition and events programme. It brings together artists, designers and researchers to explore how the health of the natural world is intimately connected to our own health and wellbeing from the waterways and atmosphere to the ocean floor. Revealing unique perspectives on our surrounding environments through multimedia installations, research collaborations and A Living Library, Vital Signs reinforces that humans are fundamentally a part of nature rather than apart from it.

Vital Signs shares the ways people are shaping liveable and hopeful futures, in the UK and around the world. In contrast to climate conversations dominated by fear and paralysis, this new exhibition celebrates the positive power of the imagination to reframe relationships that can transform society, to enable a more resilient future for all.

Still from ‘Night Bloom’ by Spectroscope and Cathy Mager. Photo credit Spectroscope

Vital Signs features work and research from Ackroyd & Harvey with Sir Ben Okri, Professor Andrea Mechelli, Angela YT Chan, Birungi Kawooya, Centric Lab, Dr George Adamson, Dr Katherine Swancutt, Dr Jan Karlach and Zuoxi Yuequi, Emma Critchley, Gayle Chong Kwan, Imogen Malpas, Naho Matsuda & Ekaterina Gladkova, Jo Brinton & Good Studio, Louise Mackenzie and Spectroscope. It is curated by Jennifer Wong and Laura Purseglove for Science Gallery London, part of King’s Culture at King’s College London and the Science Gallery Global Network.

Situated within the environmental award-winning King’s College London, Vital Signs: another world is possible advocates for a more expansive model of health to include the health of our wider environments and social systems. It reimagines these crucial points of exchange with the natural world, from the food we eat and the waste we produce to the air we breathe. Vital Signs looks to the individuals and communities making real change now for hope and inspiration in uncertain times.

Newly commissioned works for the exhibition include:

Ackroyd & Harvey working in collaboration with Kings College London alumnus Sir Ben Okri, to grow the poet’s visionary words in large-scale grass banners, willing a world reborn through the power of language. Artist Gayle Chong Kwan’s ‘I am the Thames and the Thames is me’ exploring historical, bodily, and ecological perspectives on the interconnectedness of human waste and the river Thames. Chong Kwan’s innovative experimentation has been brought together with transformative environmental research, working with King’s College London academics. An audio installation in the toilets at Science Gallery London questions the potential of using waste instead of disposing of it. Louise Mackenzie’s audio work Sh*t Happens! shares a diverse range of perspectives about human waste and ideas for making its management more sustainable.

Gayle Chong Kwan detail of work in progress for ‘I am the Thames and the Thames is me’ 2024. Photo credit Gayle Chong Kwan.

Ackroyd & Harvey detail of grass banner from ‘On the Shore’ with Ben Okri 2021. Photo by Elaine Duigenan

Ackroyd & Harvey have collaborated with poet and King’s College Alum Sir Ben Okri, to co-write texts for two large-scale grass banner works ‘I sing the spirit fantastic’. The work is a poetic call by Ackroyd, Harvey and Okri for “a rising of spirit and energy, an unleashing of innocence of imagination and a new century of inventions”. Grass seedlings are grown into artworks using techniques the artists have honed over twenty years of collaboration and research into botany, ecology, conservation, evolution and photosynthesis. The artists have manipulated light exposure during the growing process, so that the colour and growth of the grass vary, creating texts and images within it.

I Sing the Spirit Fantastic, Ackroyd and Harvey with Sir Ben Okri, Vital Signs, Science Gallery London (Photo credit: George Torode Photography)

Ben Okri, poet and Kings College London alumni said: “I am delighted to be involved in this momentous project with Ackroyd & Harvey at Science Gallery London, bringing art and poetry into the realm of science and climate change. These are times when we need the full collaborative spirit of humanity to overcome the massive climate challenge ahead of us. Art, science and poetry have great roles to play.”

Ackroyd & Harvey said: “‘Vital Signs’ inspires vitality and vision. And the power of words. It’s a great pleasure to be collaborating again with Ben Okri. To counteract climate change, consumerism, capitalism, conspiracy, chaos, and crisis, we call for creativity, collaboration, care, community and the commons. And undoubtedly some comedy too!”

Gayle Chong Kwan, I am the Thames and the Thames is Me, Vital Signs, Science Gallery London (Photo credit: George Torode Photography)

A new large-scale co-commission with King’s Libraries & Collections, artist Gayle Chong Kwan’s ‘I am the Thames and the Thames is me’ explores historical, bodily, and ecological perspectives on the interconnectedness of human waste and the river Thames.

Chong Kwan’s ‘river guardians’ are mythical human/animal/sewer creatures made of hand-dyed fabric. Images and patterns on the fabric use embodied craft techniques and tie-dyeing with bio-waste from London sewage, and the artist’s waste urine – an ingredient historically used in fabric dyeing. They stand like totems on sculptures made of wood, reclaimed sewer pipes, chamber pots decorated with sewage ash slip and jewellery made from sewage aggregate. Other works include a fantastical map of the Thames that features sewers, mythical creatures, and historical and contemporary testimonies of pollution. These new works engage with Chong Kwan’s wider practice examining individual and collective political action, human waste, trans-historical research, and Indigenous perspectives.

To develop the work, Chong Kwan’s innovative experimentation with bio-waste from the Thames is brought together with research findings in the King’s College London Archives. Discoveries included civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette’s 19th Century designs for a new London sewer system and that during the Great Stink of 1858, the curtains in the Houses of Parliament were soaked in chloride to disguise the smell. Conversations with multiple King’s College researchers, including Dr Randa Kachef, Lecturer in the Department of Geography, whose current research project ‘Thirst’ looks at sewage and the Thames, were held in the process of developing this new commission.

Gayle Chong Kwan said: “I am the Thames and the Thames is Me’ calls to reposition our bodies in historical memory and future action of the waste that we create, to be communal and collective, we are in the river and of the river, at a time when pollution in the Thames is again a major issue.”

Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, photo by Gayle Chong Kwan, 2024

Premiering is a new work ‘Night Bloom’ by Cathy Mager and deaf and disabled artist collective Spectroscope. ‘Night Bloom’ uses the metaphor of biodiversity to immerse the viewer in projection with storms and wilting flowers reflecting the systematic discrimination and erasure faced by the deaf community. The work incorporates signs drawn from Visual Vernacular and traditional Chinese (CSL) sign languages alongside improvised performances by trained dancers with traditional Chinese landscape drawings by deaf Chinese artist Teacher He. This work shares the power of embodied forms of communication, advocating for an inclusive climate transition.

Night Bloom. Cathy Mager and Spectroscope. Copyright Spectroscope 2024

Night Bloom, Vital Signs, Science Gallery London. Copyright: Spectroscope (Photo credit: George Torode Photography)

Birungi Kawooya presents ‘Resistance and Renewal’ (Title TBC) a cluster of three bark cloth pyramids inviting people to sit inside and rest within the exhibition. Utilising sustainable materials of the artist’s Ugandan heritage, this is a sanctuary for rest and repair where the work reflects on the crushing impacts of living in modern Western societies, in particular systemic racism. The work turns to nature to inspire a more restorative way of life and treats rest as a form of resistance.

Birungi Kawooya, A Space for Resistance and Renewal, Vital Signs, Science Gallery London (Photo credit: George Torode Photography)

Louise Mackenzie’s, Sh*t Happens! is an audio installation in the toilets at Science Gallery London that questions the potential of using waste instead of disposing of it. Sharing a diverse range of perspectives, King’s College London researchers talk about perceptions of human waste, waste management challenges and ideas for making human waste management more sustainable.

Louise Mackenzie, Shit Happens, Vital Signs, Science Gallery London (Photo credit: George Torode Photography)

The Living Library is an open forum and grass-roots library developed in collaboration with artists, local community groups, King’s College students and researchers. The interactive projects in the Living Library celebrate new ways of thinking and being, inviting people to reimagine a society in which local communities, researchers, artists, activists and policymakers work together to restore planetary and environmental health.

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Dates: Wednesday 13 November 2024 to Sunday 17 May 2025

Opening Times: Wednesday – Saturday, 11:00-18:00

Venue: King’s College London, Guy’s Campus, Great Maze Pond, London SE1 9GU

Tickets: FREE, no booking required

Website: https://london.sciencegallery.com/vital-signs

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About Science Gallery London

Science Gallery London is King’s College London’s flagship public space. It is a gallery unlike any other in the capital, or the country. Located on Guy’s Campus at London Bridge, it has a mission to grow new ideas across art, science and health, through a programme of exhibitions, displays, gatherings and workshops – each developed through conversation and collaboration between artists, researchers and young people in Lambeth and Southwark.

About King’s College London 

King’s College London is one of the top 35 universities in the world and one of the top 10 in Europe (QS World University Rankings, 2020/21) and among the oldest in England. King’s has more than 31,000 students (including more than 12,800 postgraduates) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 8,500 staff.

King’s has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), King’s maintained its sixth position for ‘research power’ in the UK. King’s has also been rated third amongst multidisciplinary institutions for impact, with 67.8% of its research impact rated outstanding.

King’s research is at the core of the Science Gallery London programme and visitors are invited to participate and respond to what they see, hear and experience. The public-facing programme is the result of an understanding that high-quality research and engagement is a two-way process. The opportunity to share and showcase research from King’s, as well as foster opportunities for consultation, collaboration and co-production, dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising their vision of making the world a better place; from quality research and impact, and fresh insights and ideas, to a wider understanding of the role of research in answering pressing challenges in our world.

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