biome: experiments in radical kinship

biome: a biological community that has formed in response to climate and the physical environment 

Zoë Laureen Palmer was the artist in residence at the Artsadmin Canteen between Summer 2023 and Spring 2024. Read Zoë’s reflections on her residency here.

Throughout the year, biome: experiments in radical kinship explored how we can feel our way into meaningful relationships with the natural world, within the communities local to Toynbee Studios.

Zoë’s residency aimed to open up dialogues about biodiversity to include the small things: the unseen, the algae, bacteria and microbiomes that support our ecosystems, asking:

What if biodiversity begins at home in our bodies, our microbiomes and embodied ecologies?

In the face of devastating biodiversity loss, how can we nurture the wellbeing of our inner gardens and extend this care into the living world of which we are a part? 

How can we become more implicated in the continuous growth, protection and flourishing of the earth we choose to tend, however small, polluted and degraded it might currently be? 

What are the mundane rituals we need to cultivate connection in these dangerous times?

Public programme

Summer 2024

biome: closing celebration | 13 July 2024 | Past Event

The conclusion of biome: experiments in radical kinship was a free-flowing day at Mallon Gardens welcoming in local residents for some of the favourite plant-centred activities of the project. There were tea tastings, botanical hand cream making, seed swapping, clay sculpting and herbal cocktail making. The day ended with a ‘future seeds’ closing ritual at the biome: biodiversity rest up garden.

Spring 2024

Seeding and planting workshops

Beginning in Spring 2024, Zoë is running a series of practical growing workshops to make use of the spaces in front of, above, and around Toynbee Studios, in collaboration with community participants. Through collective embodied practise, local residents and workers are invited to grow a space of collaborative nurture.

biome: seeding workshops | 23 March 2024 | Past Event

The first in the Spring series of biome events, biome: seeding workshops welcomed in local residents to explore our relationship to seeds through workshops on seed swapping and sowing, seed paper making, botanical hand cream making, visual collaging, tea tasting and meditation at the Artsadmin Canteen.

biome: sprouts and microgreens workshop | 24 April 2024 | Past Event

The second Spring biome event at the Artsadmin Canteen was a practical introduction to starting a sprouts microfarm at home. This workshop was in collaboration with Alba Caffé.

biome: planting and growing | 1 June – 6 July 2024 | Past Event

This series of six community growing and planting sessions transformed the garden beds of Mallon Gardens outside Toynbee Studios. These hands-on workshops included working with a range of grasses, shrubs, wildflowers, ferns and bulbs to bring biome: biodiversity rest up garden to life.

Winter 2023

biome ballroom: hinterlands | 25 November 2023 | Past Event

biome ballroom: hinterlands, the second in the biome ballroom series, invited audiences into an immersive space for collective rest in the Artsadmin Canteen. They mixed their own mocktails and explored themes of reciprocity and relationality with the more than human world.

An Afternoon with The Gardening Drawing Club | 10 December 2023 | Past Event

Artist Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck, in collaboration with The Gardening Drawing Club, held space in the Artsadmin Canteen to discuss themes of growth and growing, while guests drew from Zoë’s installation biome: forrest.

Autumn 2023

biome: sprouts and micro greens | 29 September 2023 | Past Event

sprouts and micro greens are currently being cultivated in the Artsadmin Canteen in collaboration with Alba Caffe and Event Space, who share responsibilities for maintaining and harvesting the plants. In September, Zoë ran a sprouts and micro greens workshop, where people learnt more about them and their uses, found out how to grow them and shared different recipes.

biome: forrest | 17 October – 11 December 2023 | Past Event

biome: forrest was a temporary installation which served as an experimental urban sanctuary for rest and regeneration within the Artsadmin Canteen. This tiny biome was populated with more-than-human kin including houseplants, mosses, and the ancient cyanobacteria spirulina, and accompanied by a durational soundscape by sound artist Keir Vine. In a time of unprecedented environmental collapse and urgency, forrest was a portal inviting us to slow down, surrender and allow space for the flourishing of our radical imaginations.

biome ballroom: peatlands | 20 October 2023 | Past Event

biome ballroom: peatlands was the first in a series of evening events Zoë ran in collaboration with Keir Vine. They imagined the biome ballroom as a sonic durational ritual, dance and liberatory dreaming practise that explores encounters and relationality with our more than human kin, partly inspired by visionary hip-hop producer J Dilla who, facing his own early death, played with rhythm and time like no other. 

Audiences were invited to an immersive experience of sound, scent, dancing and interspecies rest, beginning and ending in the Artsadmin Canteen. Artist Kookie Blue performed in the Theatre at Toynbee Studios and guests mixed their own mocktails to beats from a more-than-human selecta.

Summer 2023

What Shall We Grow Here? | 1 July 2023 | Past Event

The residency began in July with What Shall We Grow Here? – an installation and open workshop exploring seeding and planting rituals in the local area. It took place during What Shall We Build Here 2023, Artsadmin’s biannual festival of art, climate and community and was co-curated by the Community Climate Champions.

biome: experiments in radical kinship was supported by BE PART, through the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, Arts Council England and Tower Hill Trust.