“What would be more domestic, more unremarkable, more British, than a nice cup of tea?”

Neil MacGregor

 

Conversations Around Tea is an installation bringing together active elements within the social act of tea drinking, questioning how function can be positioned to draw attention to the diverse histories surrounding the scene, and the rich cultural knowledge embedded within.

 

British imperialistic past, alongside social class distinction and division, becomes entrenched in a cup that is habitually drunk. Simultaneously, tea is actively present within our current cultural and political climate; its symbolic use within our most recent election, or national stockpiling during the initial Covid-19 lockdown, forming examples of national significance. It is within the Victorian household that British tea consumption was domesticated- transforming from an elitist favourite, to a national symbol. It is here, where tea met milk and sugar, that a difficult imperial history met industrialisation and colonialism, forming the backbone of a history that must be acknowledged.

 

Conversations Around Tea looks to the multi-layered nature of the scene, and questions:

How the act of tea consumption forms an engagement and implication between these histories and the drinker?

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