MULBERRY
TREE OF PLENTY
Engagement - Exhibition and Workshops
Throughout the course of the Mulberry – Tree of Plenty project, artists Sara Heywood & Jane Watt and researcher Dr David Chau exchanged knowledge with local residents, community organisations and specialists to learn about the mulberry tree in workshop sessions, walks, and experiments in the lab and studio. Together, they researched the tree including the heritage of the mulberry in east London; botanical ink making; skeletonization and ghosting of leaves for biomedical applications.
Mulberry – Tree of Plenty Live Installation
Friday 16 - 18 April 2021, 12:00 - 22:00 daily
Create Place, St Margaret’s House
26 Old Ford Road
Bethnal Green
London, E2 9PL
The project culminated in a live, site-specific moving image installation on the exterior windows of the Create Place, St Margaret’s House as part of UCL’s Trellis Festival. Throughout the three-day installation over 350 participants and visitors experienced the installation.
A free project postcard publication was given to participants, installation visitors and local organisations. It shared key findings from the project including interactive activities, such as a mulberry heritage walk map, instructions on how to grow a sapling from seed, and a mulberry cake recipe.
Online talk and Q+A with artists and researcher
Thursday 15 April, 19:30 - 20:30
The Mulberry - Tree of Plenty team presented a live talk and Q&A on their project and shared some of the discoveries they made along the way as part of the UCL Trellis Festival Programme
To find out more about the festival visit UCL Trellis
Photo Credit: Ollie Harrop
Mulberry Taste & Virtual Walk
Saturday 17 Oct 2020
Sara Heywood, Jane Watt and David Chau premier their virtual walk film featuring renowned mulberry expert Peter Coles and local mulberry champion, Jaime Rory Lucy in the Chapel at St Margaret’s House, Bethnal Green. Visitors discovered and exchanged stories and heritage of the mulberry trees of Bethnal Green. Together they tasted mulberry cake, cheesecake and mulberry lemonade made by St Margaret’s House café, using berries from their very own mulberry tree.
Botanical Ink Drawing
Saturday 14 November 2020
Artists Sara Heywood & Jane Watt demonstrate how to make botanical inks from mulberry berries and leaves, and together, workshop participants explore colour, texture and shape using the inks on a range of papers, including mulberry paper.
Mulberry Under the Microscope
Saturday 28 November 2020
In this hands-on virtual workshop participants explore how different parts of the mulberry tree could be used in biomaterial medical research through scientific experiments including leaf skeletonization with Dr David Chau.