A baffling environmental exhibition at Science Gallery London

An exhibition showing artists’ responses to the environment around them could be really insightful or baffling. This is baffling with a capital Baff.

The Science Gallery, next to London Bridge, tries to tell science through the medium of art, and very occasionally, it works well, but far more often, I have wandered out asking myself, “What on earth was that?”

So, an exhibition about the environment, and rather than climate change, it’s about human relationships with the environment around them could be an interesting idea. However, while there are some large artistic installations here, I kept going around them repeatedly and wondering what it’s all supposed to be and why this here and now.

There are a few glimpses of interesting ideas at play, such as the very easy-to-miss for something so large, the grass wall above the stairs, which “grows” a text message in the grass.

The guardians of the river is a nice idea, but it is executed in a way that means you can only work out what it is if you read the explanation nearby. Theres a video of a ritualistic dance, some audio tracks talking about a serious issue of air pollution, but please print the transcripts as well, and you are supposed to sit in the tents and be contemplative.

The 3d video is just plain odd.

Sometimes art can try just a bit too hard to sell a message and loses the message under layers upon layers of interpretation until all that’s left is something so divorced from the original idea that it can only be understood by experts in art theory.

If artists want to promote a message, they need to speak the same language as the listener.

The exhibition, VITAL SIGNS: another world is possible is at the Science Gallery London until 17th May 2025 and is free to visit.

It’s open Wed-Sat from 11am to 6pm.