What does food mean to you? How does it feel to cook for others, and how does it feel to eat and share a meal that someone else has made for us? Can eating together bring us closer together? How can we can make the foods we love more sustainable?
Our 2024 Creative Programme, generously funded by Arts Council England, centred around two new food-themed art projects, both based in the Chiswick House Kitchen Garden.
For ‘Harvesting Connection: A Communal Table’, London-based artist Ayesha Weekes designed and created a communal wooden long table, constructed in collaboration with her husband Mark Weekes, and destined to have a lasting home in the Kitchen Garden.
Made from reclaimed materials, including fallen holly and sycamore logs from the Chiswick House woodlands, the table now sits inside the 17th century walled garden, surrounded by the fruit, grains, flowers and vegetables cultivated by CHGT’s dedicated gardeners and volunteers.
Going forwards, it will act as a gathering point for Kitchen Garden visitors to spend time together, learn and relax, and exchange food and food stories.
Life, family and culture: what does food mean to you?
For artist Ayesha, food is intrinsically linked to the idea of family:
To me, the theme of food signifies life, family, and culture. Food has always been central to my family, and my mother found great joy in feeding everyone,
When I had my children eating together was a priority. Having a family meal brings us together no matter how busy our lives get. It gives space for conversation, connection, time to check in, slow down and appreciate each other.
With Ghanaian heritage, our diet has always been a blend of English and Ghanaian cuisine. I used to referred to Ghanaian dishes as ‘home foods.’ These meals evoke memories of heritage, comfort, togetherness, and celebration.
A series of workshops, held as part of the table’s design and construction, enabled visitors and community groups to connect with the project and its themes.
Participants in a community workshop on 25 July were encouraged to share their thoughts on how food nourishes and nurtures us, physically, creatively, and emotionally – perhaps via a dish that connects them with their family history and culture, a favourite comfort food, or a vivid memory of tasting something for the first time.
Those attending also created individual clay tiles, using the theme of food as an inspiration, and incorporating flowers and leaves from the Kitchen Garden into their artworks.
This activity was repeated during a family event on September 1st to celebrate the table’s official launch, alongside cookery demos and food tasting sessions with local chef Manju, flower pounding workshops, and a communal clay garden.
For Ayesha, the decision to incorporate ceramics and clay activities into the creative stages of the project, as well as its launch celebration, was a deeply meaningful one.
As an artist working with ceramics, I feel that clay is a precious gift from the earth. It allows me to create something beautiful and meaningful with my bare hands from a simple lump of earth that will last thousands of years. I love the versatility of clay—its malleability lets me draw, paint, print, sculpt, and craft both useful items and objects of beauty, or simply explore my creativity.
There’s something incredibly special and inspiring about working with an ancient material that has such a rich history of diverse uses, and endless learning opportunities.
In the Chiswick House Kitchen Garden, we prioritise finding environmentally-friendly, community-focused ways of growing food, working with local volunteers to ensure that half of everything we produce is donated back to local charities.
We’re therefore delighted to have been part of a project that embraces values of connection, sharing and sustainability, all of which are central to the work we do here.
Finally, we’re also incredibly grateful to Arts Council London for funding this project as part of our 2024 Creative Programme and making the creation of Ayesha’s beautiful table possible.
- Harvesting Connection was one of two food-themed arts projects, funded by Arts Council England as part of CHGT’s 2024 Creative Programme. Find out more about Flower Feast: A Kitchen Garden Trail, by artist Jaixia Blue.
- The Kitchen Garden is free to enter for all. Opening hours are 10.30am to 3.30pm, Thursday to Sunday, until October 27th.
This project was generously funded by Arts Council England.
