Back to ‘Normal’: The Year in Food
James Hansen, ArtReview
December 2023
Walking through Narrow Way Square in Hackney Central, East London means walking to, past or by three majestic Caribbean fruits. Veronica Ryan’s Custard Apple (Annonaceae), white marble petals softly tessellating; Breadfruit (Moraceae), its skin taut and robust; and Soursop (Annonaceae) (all 2021), invitingly spiky and soft green, form the first public monument in London to the Windrush generation, and the shameful scandal of their detention and deportation. The sculptures sit in dialogue with the fruit markets that inspired the monument. This was Ryan’s intention: for the work to not only bear witness, but also become part of the public space, for people to touch, sit on and use as much as to admire and contemplate. […]