Saturday 3 May – Sunday 28 September 2025
Kew Gardens, London
Kew Gardens has launched its first-ever outdoor digital art commission, Of the Oak, a world-premiere installation by Marshmallow Laser Feast, one of the UK’s most exciting experiential artist collectives. Open to the public until 28 September, the immersive artwork combines cutting-edge scientific research with Marshmallow Laser Feast’s signature eco-educational innovative style to reveal the hidden processes of one of Kew’s oldest trees, the Lucombe Oak.
At the heart of the gardens, a six-metres-high digital portal offers a multisensory experience, through which visitors can view the transformation of the Lucombe Oak across four seasons. Using real-world data, the installation animates the invisible web of water, oxygen, and carbon cycling through the tree; showing the flow of nutrients, the oak’s sequestration of carbon dioxide, and its role in sustaining over 2,000 species at Kew that depend on its survival.
Marshmallow Laser Feast collaborated closely with Kew’s scientists and horticulturists, employing LiDAR scanning, high-resolution photogrammetry, CT scanning, and a Ground Penetrating Radar to map the roots of the Lucombe Oak. Its a beauty-meets data-driven artwork that brings to life the hidden networked universe of trees.
Ersin Han Ersin, of Marshmallow Laser Feast, explains the vision behind the installation: “Informed by science and created in collaboration with researchers, this project blends art, ecology, and technology to reveal the oak not merely as a tree, but as a living nexus of connection and reciprocity. The artwork serves as a portal into the intricate and often unseen world pulsating within the oak’s magnificent structure, celebrating its ecological significance and the myriad forms of life it supports throughout its existence.”
In addition to Of the Oak, visitors can explore Kew’s Power of Trees exhibition in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, running until 14 September. Later this summer, kids will be able play in a new treehouse set to be unveiled this summer, as they explore the Remarkable Trees Trail.
Find out more here
