Second year Illustration students visit Tower Hamlets in London
17 January 2025
Five second year Illustration students travelled to London last month to meet Elaine, Sajna, and Shazna, some of the Bangladeshi researchers working for the ‘Food Lives Tower Hamlets’ project. Senior Lecturer Linda Scott collaborated with Dr Elaine Swan from Sussex University to make it happen, and accompanied the students on the trip.
Funded by UKRI and led by the University of Reading, it explores the role food plays in our lives and the importance of history, culture, and heritage in our food habits.
The students visited the Tower Hamlets to illustrate the project, and were given a tour of Whitechapel Market, which focused on the fruits and vegetables used in Bangladeshi cooking. This was followed by a cooking session led by women from the Bangladeshi community, where students learnt more about cooking processes before getting the chance to visit Watney Market. Here, they researched the produce used in Bangladeshi dishes, which included everything from pulses to spices.
During their tour, students drafted initial sketches of their visit to the Tower Hamlets, which were then developed further and used to promote the ‘Food Lives’ project in a range of formats.
When asked how she found the trip, Jess Underwood, one of the students who attended, replied: “It felt like a real privilege to be able to go into these markets and community spaces and have the women leading the research teaching us so much about their backgrounds, cooking practices, and heritage while we were in those spaces. It felt like an invitation into a whole cultural world I had not had the opportunity to learn much about before.”
She added: “The trip advised me on ethical practices and cultural understanding, showing me how to navigate these topics in a respectful manner and in a way that really illuminates everyone's different lived experiences and background.
Illustration is such a brilliant medium to express information and to teach people new things, and I really want to lean more in that direction after this trip.”
Student Niamh Shannon, who also attended, said: “My illustration work has been strongly influenced by the sense of camaraderie felt in the kitchen when observing the group of Bangladeshi women cook, and furthermore by my research into Bengali and Bangladeshi artforms like tapestry and quilting. I think a lot of the research and work I have gained from this opportunity will stick with me throughout my practice.”
Before going on this excursion, the illustration students took part in a half-day drawing exercise, organised by course leader Nigel Owen. Led by the reportage artist Peter Blodau, they went into Falmouth with the purpose of drawing on-site and capturing people interacting with one another as a warm-up. It allowed them to practice the craft of drawing people moving within public spaces, particularly within shops and cafes.
This trip was part of a five-week module, called Challenging Subjects, which concludes this week.