Sana Thombre
20th October 2020
Students and passers-by of Goldsmith University, London, took social media by storm as they witnessed a heap of carrots dumped on the university campus. Artist and MFA student Rafael Perez Evans emphasized the topic of food wastage that is a rising concern in the United Kingdom with his art installation, ‘Grounding’. Photos and videos immediately made rounds. This news was widespread around the world.
This art installation was a part of the artist’s MFA degree show, which the university clarified. Twenty-nine tons of rejected carrots by the UK food industry claiming the vegetable not ‘shelf worthy’ were stacked up inside the campus to make people aware of food wastage.
Pile of unwanted carrots (Source: Twitter account of George Greenwood)
The university later avers that this rejected pile of food will be used to feed farm animals. This devalued pile of vegetables on the campus site was a statement claiming the importance of food wastage during such challenging times in an on-going pandemic.
The Times journalist Gorge Greenwood tweeted about the installation questioning, “Why a significant amount of carrots has been dumped on Goldsmith University campus?” which blew up Twitter and caught the netizens’ attention.
The artist stated that “The produce in the piece are unwanted carrots. Carrots that the food industry in the UK deems not worthy of shelves. The full 29 tons of vegetables will be collected after the exhibition and sent to feed animals.”
The artwork, inspired by the protest carried out by European farmers, they dumped their devalued produce in order to bring awareness about the division between the rural and urban.
As art is subjective, some people on the internet claimed the art installation to defy the soul meaning, which it tried to propagate. Meanwhile, people who went through the published article and read about the whole scenario replied to the tweet by highlighting the artist’s statement.
The UK is not a self-sufficient country when we talk about food production, 48% of the total food consumed by the citizen is import to the country, and the rest produced from the agricultural sector. The covid-19 situation made the nation realize how important it is to look after the rising concerns the food industry faces.
(Sources: Indian Express,Food Security U.K)
Edited by: Ritish