Shifts and Expedients

An assemblage of objects displayed as a balance apparatus where one thing may be weighed against another. In this configuration a garment made out of worn sheets and dyed with plants over lock-down is weighed up against 3D prints of a gourd. The pattern for the colonists trousers comes from artist Thomas Baines’ 1871 book Shifts and Expedients of Camp Life, Travel & Exploration. Weighed up against the garment are bioplastic 3D prints from a scan of Catalogue Number: 54663. 75.00 CUCURBITA-CEAE Lagenaria siceraria: a beer ladle made from a gourd collected by Baines and now in the Economic Botany Unit at Kew. In this installation the apparatus is anchored by a bronze cast of a corn cob scanned by Rihanata Bigey from the Prisoners of Love research project and a bean bag originating from work with Francis Summers. Alongside the apparatus are displayed drawings of a gourd plant made by Joe Walsh and Micahel Curran. These are grounded by a paper weight - a bronze cast of a compass - scanned by Esi Eshun for the Prisoners of Love project.

• https://www.kew.org/science/collections-...
• https://artslondon.padlet.org/lminkin/pr...
• https://imaginingfutures.world/projects/...