Experience Of the Oak, a one-of-a-kind immersive art installation at Kew Gardens.
This spring and summer, visitors to Kew Gardens can experience Of the Oak, a one-of-a-kind immersive art installation that celebrates the oak tree as a vital hub of biodiversity. The ground-breaking artwork is the creation of world-renowned experiential artist collective Marshmallow Laser Feast, who have had global success with their previous work exhibiting at the likes of the Saatchi Gallery, The Barbican, Cannes Film Festival and the ACMI.
The newly commissioned artwork located within Kew’s landscape is a massive is a 6-metre-high outdoor installation. It focuses on the inner workings of the Lucombe oak, one of Kew's oldest trees and among one of the oldest Lucombe oaks in existence, creating a ‘digital double’ of the oak by using extensive real-world data captured in collaboration with Kew’s scientists and horticulturists.
The 12-minute interactive video installation guides visitors through the oak's transformation across four seasons, revealing its hidden vibrancy and intricate web of life. Visitors can actively influence the tree's motion on screen as they move through the garden, exploring beneath the oak's bark and soil to uncover the usually invisible processes that sustain the tree, including the interplay of oxygen, carbon dioxide and mycelial connections. Open-eyed online meditations, written by Daisy Lafarge, Merlin Sheldrake, Ella Saltmarshe, and Laline Paull, will further invite visitors to contemplate among the trees, bridging the scientific and poetic, and expanding the video artworks’ themes into an immersive encounter with nature.
Collaboration with Kew’s curators, scientists, and horticulturists see the birth of this work, as part of an ongoing effort to digitally preserve endangered ecosystems and enables visitors to find out more about the future of trees and the important work that Kew is doing to protect them.
Listings
3 May to 28 September 2025
Kew Gardens Kew, Richmond, London, TW9 3AE
Admission: Included with entry to the Gardens BOOK HERE