Pictures and interview about First Food Residency for Happening.media

“Cactus & Creatures”, the fruit of a labour of love by First Food Residency, is currently running across The Koppel Project’s two London gallery spaces featuring the work of 19 artists including pieces by this year’s artists in residence, previous program participants and a number of invited guests.

While many of London’s galleries are running bold solo shows concurrently to the heterogeneity of Frieze — Jean Dubuffet at Pace, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami at Tyburn, Catherine Opie at Thomas Danes — “Cactus & Creatures” is a rare and joyous gallery group show, presenting recently graduated British artists alongside visiting Mexican muralists and artisans as well as established practitioners. This chorus of voices gives the show an energy that sometimes lacks among the professional commercialism of international art fair weeks.

From Anna Bruce’s evocative photos documenting the process of Mezcal production in southern Mexico, to Stephen Chambers’ blood-red portraits of scorpions, ants and grubs, painted with the crushed reds of cochineal bugs, the exhibition is an ode to the foreign mysticism of food culture in Mexico.

https://www.happening.media/category/magazine/en/articles/3044/food-as-a-lens-to-two-diverging-cultures-first-food-residency-at-the-koppel-project