Forget avocados, chia seeds, and leafy greens — milk is the OG superfood. With the advent of nutritional science in the early 20th century, milk achieved near miraculous status as a source of newly discovered fats, carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins. It has duly become a mass-produced staple in Western diets, reshaping cultural and physical landscapes.
This mythical transformation is the subject of “Milk», a major exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London which will run until September 30th.
Installation view of ‘Milk’ at the Wellcome Collection, 2023. Photo: Steven Pocock.
The museum was established in 2007 to challenge public perceptions of health by harnessing the disparate powers of science and art and “Milk” fulfills this mission. The exhibit features more than 100 items, including government posters, promotional films from dairy companies, a herd of cow-shaped creamers and a handful of bold orders. Unsurprisingly, this is the first exhibition to deconstruct the complex history of the dairy product.
The exhibition also takes a look at this other milk, the human species. Very early on, visitors encounter the hanging sculpture by Julia Bornefeld, which evokes both cow’s udders and a human breast. In another work, the video piece Drop the reflex (2023), Ilana Harris Babouexplores black motherhood through family conversations about nursing.
If breastfeeding continues to occupy an uncomfortable place in Western society, “Milk” suggests it could be the product of the exclusive association of milk with cows for a century. Although the roots of this consumption are deeper, as shown by the display through historical objects dating back thousands of years, they were supercharged by governmental and industrial forces in the 20th century. Dietary guides printed by the British Medical Association and formula milk boxes from Glaxo make this clear.
Milk: the backbone of young Britain attach. Photo: © IWM (Art. IWM PST 4944)
Milk is also intrinsically linked to whiteness. With its status as an early superfood, milk was seen as an essential product for maintaining the strength and well-being of white communities. The exhibition traces this thinking sometimes implicitly, for example by displaying dairy marketing campaigns featuring smiling white families, and other times more explicitly, as in the case of an advertisement for buttermilk. 1920 in which future US President Herbert Hoover declared that dairy products were essential. for the survival of the white race.
At a time of growing awareness around the sustainability of staple foods, Wellcome Collection shows that sometimes the social implications are just as problematic.
See more images from the exhibit below.
Milk, ©Lucy + Jorge Orta / ADAGP Paris, 2022. Reproduced with the permission of Lucy + Jorge Orta
Ilana Harris-Babou, Drop the reflex (2023). Photo: Steven Pocock.
Photo: Norfolk / Department of Health. 1937 – 1938. Wellcome Collection, London
Evelyn Mary Dunbar, Practice of milking with artificial udders, (1940). Photo courtesy of the Imperial War Museums.
‘Milk’ can be viewed at the Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London, until September 30.
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