Tonnes of carrots are dumped at Goldsmith’s University in London

Baffled students watch 29 TONNES of carrots being dumped outside a London university as an art installation about food waste – before nabbing a few for their dinner

  • Twenty-nine tonnes of carrots were dumped on Goldsmiths college campus
  • Baffled students filmed a truck tipping the vegetables on the floor on Tuesday
  • The bizarre carrot pile was revealed to be an art project by Rafael Perez Evans

This is the moment a 29-tonnes load of carrots was dumped outside a London university as part of an art project highlighting food wastage. 

The carrots – and a few potatoes – were tipped out by the Ben Pimlott Building at Goldsmiths College in New Cross, which is part of the University of London, on Tuesday.

Bizarre video footage taken by Matt Colquhoun shows the seemingly endless stream of carrots spilling out of the large truck while crowds of confused onlookers watch.

The 29 tonne pile was revealed to be an art installation called Grounding, set up by Rafael Perez Evans ahead of Goldsmiths’s MFA degree show, which will kick off on Friday.

The art project highlights the issues of food waste as all of the vegetables used were unwanted and would not have made it on to UK supermarket shelves.

The carrots were tipped on the floor by a truck outside the Ben Pimlott Building at Goldsmiths College in New Cross, which is part of the University of London

Baffled students filmed as a truck dump 29 tonnes of carrots and potatoes outside the Ben Pimlott Building at Goldsmiths College in New Cross, which is part of the University of London

The carrot mound will remain on the campus until the university’s art show closes next Tuesday, when the vegetables will be collected by the Spanish-Welsh artist and donated as animal feed.

Since the installation, students have taken the opportunity to clamber on top of the unusual heap of vegetables and take some once-in-a-lifetime snaps.

And despite a warning sign saying that the carrots are ‘not for human consumption’, many peckish students have still taken the discarded food home to eat.

Musical theatre student Eden Groualle, 20, described the installation as ‘very bizarre’.

She added: ‘But I knew this is very Goldsmiths, and all that was left was to understand what it meant.’

Others on Twitter agreed that the carrot pile was a scene that could only be found at Goldsmiths, while some users slammed the artwork as ‘pretentious’.

One person joked: ‘Putting carrots on the floor and calling it art is peek art pretentiousness. My rabbit would appreciate it tho.’

Another said: ‘Something wonderfully haunting about seeing a bunch of Goldsmiths students wearing masks and looking at a massive mound of carrots.’

Some social media users also expressed their sorrow that the few potatoes that had made their way into the pile had been forgotten about amid the storm of carrots.

The vegetable pile is art installation called Grounding by Rafael Perez Evans, set up as a commentary on food waste. The artist said the carrots had not made it to supermarket shelves

The vegetable pile is art installation called Grounding by Rafael Perez Evans, set up as a commentary on food waste. The artist said the carrots had not made it to supermarket shelves

Some students felt torn at the dumping of piles of edible food, with Josie Power (pictured), 20, saying she felt conflicted by the 'surreal' artwork

Some students felt torn at the dumping of piles of edible food, with Josie Power (pictured), 20, saying she felt conflicted by the ‘surreal’ artwork

Many students have also said they felt torn about dumping such large quantities of edible food, despite the artist saying the vegetables were rejected by supermarkets.

Twenty-year-old history student Lester Langford, from Warwickshire, said: ‘Even though the carrots are being donated to farm animals at the end of the piece, it’s still slightly problematic given the poverty, food shortages and homelessness in Lewisham.’

Josie Power, originally from Norwich, said she felt conflicted by the ‘surreal’ artwork.

The 20-year-old student, who studies performance, politics and society, said: ‘It was something so fun and bizarre to go and see… but also it’s hard not to acknowledge the glaring problems with food wastage.’

She added: ‘However, this food was likely to be wasted anyways… so by using them for this project people are suddenly thinking about food wastage and the amount that doesn’t make it to supermarkets to be sold.

‘It’s certainly an interesting way to gain attention for a social cause!’

According to the artist’s website, the installation explores ‘the tensions in visibility between the rural and the city’, and was inspired by European farmers dumping produce as a form of protest.

‘The therapeutic technique of grounding involves doing activities that “ground” or electrically reconnect you to the earth,’ he added.

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