Kelp

The Berlin-based artist uses the language of advertising to reinvent traditional Welsh food culture for the modern consumer. Kelp is the latest exhibition by Swansea-born artist Dan Rees which has been developed from his own love of the seaweed-based food – a product he regularly has sent from Wales to his studio in Berlin. Kelp sees Welsh laverbread re-branded and repackaged for the modern, health conscious consumer. Seaweed has been used in Asia as a food staple for thousands of years. High in protein and packed full of vitamins, consumers in the west are becoming increasingly aware of its claim to be the new superfood. Yet Dan Rees believes Welsh laverbread remains a niche food, promoted and consumed as a ‘heritage’ product or a culinary novelty. In Kelp, the artist challenges this narrow categorisation by using the tool of advertising to launch a new brand of laverbread for a young, stylish, metropolitan consumer. Using a wide range of media – from packaging design to photography – Dan Rees positions laverbread at the vanguard of a new, green food revolution.