April 26, 2021 | Online Exhibition

Join us for our virtual exhibition launch

2 Artists • 5 Researchers • 10 Public participants

experimental recipes + conversations + visual creations

26 April 6.30pm

We invite you to join us to celebrate #flowcellular, a year-long collaboration between researchers from The Wellcome Sanger Institute, artists from The Saturday Museum and public participants. Together we have been exploring the science behind what happens in our DNA at a cellular level as we age, from scientific and personal perspectives.

We will be sharing stories from the project, showcasing our online exhibition and launching our printed recipe book.

Meet the people at the heart of the project, explore the science of ageing and find out what happened when lockdown baking inspired a new approach to dialogue across science and art.

#flowcellular is a collaborative project between Wellcome Connecting Science, The Wellcome Sanger Institute’s Cancer Ageing and Somatic Mutations Programme, The Saturday Museum and public participants, exploring the science behind what happens in our DNA at a cellular level as we age.

The art and science collaboration began in February 2020 and was due to be exhibited in the Genome Gallery later that year. However, as a result of the global pandemic we had to temporarily close our doors to the public and seek alternative virtual platforms for connecting. Unable to meet in person, or inhabit our labs or studios spaces, we decided to make the kitchen our shared space. Artists from the Saturday Museum brought together scientists and public participants, some of whom have lived experience of Cancer, to explore how our DNA changes over our lifetimes from scientific and personal perspectives. Participants got together over a period of a year via zoom in their kitchens to explore culinary metaphors for scientific concepts, share family recipes and connect during this time of social distancing.

Our conversations sought to understand more about cancer, ageing and how our DNA changes over time, due to a variety of biological, lifestyle and environmental factors, and how these affect our health as we get older.  This collaboration provided a space for us to explore the themes of the research in dialogue with people’s lived experiences, and to share that learning with others.

Our approach was playful, tactile, creative, messy and empathic. We have chopped, sliced, mixed, iced, stirred, boiled and kneaded. We have made everything from multi-coloured flat bread to animals from fruit.  Everyone has generously shared their individual perspectives, knowledge, humour, and creative ideas. Together we have found a common language through food that has enabled us to connect with each other and the subject matter.

We have been able to share stories about our lives and loved ones and make a space for creative exploration in research in this time of social isolation. For some of us we are now viewing and contributing to science in ways we never thought possible, and for others we are now thinking differently about how we involve people more in our science and have new questions we want to investigate as a result of these conversations.

In this virtual exhibition and events programme we bring together our stories, discoveries, reflections and some of the many questions generated over the duration of the project to share with you.

We invite you to join us for the launch event in April followed by a series of talks and workshops where you will be able to explore #flowcellular and the themes of the research in more depth, meet some of the people at the heart of the project and contribute your perspectives on what cancer, ageing and DNA mean to you.

To find out more search our hashtag #flowcellular on instagram or visit @saturdaymuseum and @wgcengage