So, it makes perfect sense for London’s Wellcome Collection to devote a major exhibition to this widely consumed beverage that provokes debate.
The “Milk” exhibition examines society’s attachment to this beverage, whose name refers to breast milk as well as to milk of animal and plant origin.
Curators Marianne Templeton and Honor Beddard have brought together over 150 pieces for display in the galleries of the Wellcome Collection.
Among them are objects commonly used for feeding infants and in agricultural production, as well as contemporary artworks by Julia Bornefeld, Sarah Pucill, Hetain Patel and Lucy + Jorge Orta, among others.
The exhibition starts off by tracing the history of milk through the ages.
While it is generally accepted that our ancestors were consuming dairy products as far back as the invention of agriculture, scientists from the LeCHE scientific programme claim that this practice actually dates back to the Neolithic period.
Milk and dairy products have become an integral part of human nutrition in many cultures over the centuries, prompting scientists to take a closer look.
In recent history, scientists and nutritionists have ascribed a multitude of virtues to dairy, with such products constituting an important source of calcium, proteins and vitamins – even if these properties are increasingly being questioned today.
At the beginning of the 20th century, public authorities began encouraging children in particular, as well as adults to consume milk.
The “Milk” exhibition includes a number of vintage advertising posters describing milk as a healthy food for toddlers. One even describes the beverage as the “backbone of young Britain.”
Meanwhile free daily distribution of milk in British schools was introduced in 1946 to curb malnutrition among schoolchildren. Margaret Thatcher, then Minister for Education, abolished it in 1972, earning her the nickname “milk snatcher.”
An iconic drink for the human species
Visitors to the Wellcome Collection’s “Milk” exhibition are also made aware of the incredibly political – in every sense of the term – aspect of milk.
This is particularly evident in “White,” a video installation created by Danielle Dean especially for this exhibition. In it, the British-American artist explains how dairy farming has reshaped New Zealand’s natural landscapes, particularly those inhabited by the indigenous Maori tribes.
Elsewhere in the exhibition, an independent magazine from 2015 looks back at one of the lesser-known episodes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
During the First Intifada (1987-1993), a group of activists and intellectuals from Beit Sahour in the West Bank purchased 18 cows to circumvent the milk distribution monopoly imposed by the Israeli authorities. An act of civil disobedience that would make these cattle a symbol of Palestinian pride.
While the main focus of the exhibition is milk of animal origin, it also looks at human milk.
A video installation by Ilana Harris-Babou, entitled “Let Down Reflex,” uses the testimonies of several women in the American artist’s family to encourage visitors to rethink their image of breastfeeding and, more generally, motherhood.
A few meters further on, an installation by Jess Dobkin questions the fate of breast milk, the iconic nutritional element of the human species that is nevertheless subject to strict regulation in many countries.
The “Milk” exhibition runs through Sept 10 at the Wellcome Collection in London.