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Within the context of the Ways of Learning programme, artist Uriel Orlow delivered a performance lecture expanding on themes and concerns present in his project Theatrum Botanicum (2015-2018) which looks to the botanical world as a stage for history. Two films from Theatrum Botanicum were shown at Grand Union.
The lecture performance Grey, Green, Gold (and Red) considered plants and gardens as active agents in politics. Following human-plant entanglements, Grey, Green, Gold (and Red) explored the role played by the garden Nelson Mandela and his fellow inmates planted on Robben Island prison during their 18-year incarceration, the implications of an ongoing battle between a flower and a squirrel, as well as the fate of alien species in Europe and South Africa.
