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Marco Evaristti, “Polpette al grasso di Marco” (2010)
His auto-cannibalistic happening to be understood as critical-ironic commentary on Western consumer society and the culture of eating, while at the same time placing it in the context of a gluttonous art world with its constant demand for something new; with this work, the art market is offered the ultimate possibility to directly incorporate an art work: “Eat me, I am art, and the art devouring public will finally be satisfied.” In so doing, cannibalism, which in Western thought is traditionally attributed to the primitive and other, is revealed as a cultural cannibalism in our own culture and in ourselves.
Jennifer Rubell – Creation (2009)
Jennifer Rubell — organizer of the now infamous gala dinner for Performa09 and the upcoming Brooklyn Ball — acknowledged that her work “looks a lot like gluttony,” a term with “an extreme moral component.” Yet morals around food are not what interest her as an artist. Rather, she is drawn to the aesthetic and psychological properties of food. Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, where sin and pleasure are inseparable, came to mind when she referred to her interactive food installations as “erotic engagement with plenty.”
Christine Chin – Genetically Modified Foods New Cookbook (website)
Above: Cayla Skillin-Brauchle, 2012, “The Declaration and Preservation of Love” Interactive Performance at ROY G BIV Gallery, Columbus OH. The Preservation and Declaration of Love was a sugarcoating performance, during which I sugarcoated and displayed tokens of love, despair, and the everyday. We often say that language has been sugarcoated. By this we mean that the information has become sweeter or more palpable, but simultaneously has become less explicit or less honest. When I sugarcoated patrons’ possessions, the items shimmered, but at the time were obscured or rendered useless. Gallery goers brought me their items or notes. Items ranged from sentimental to precious to useless. Often items challenged the idea of sugarcoating. With a little bit of prompting, they always had a story. Sugarcoated items were sealed in industrial strength bags and labeled by the owner. Finally they were displayed on a wall, in a constantly changing participatory composition.
Miriam Simun, “The Lady Cheese Shop,” 2011.
Above: Cayla Skillin-Brauchle, 2011, MAKING/DISPLAYING: PEANUT BUTTER CUPS, Performance and Installation. A 20-hour performance in which the artist contemplates what it means to produce something that can easily and cheaply be bought, notions of perfection, and labor.
Matina Bourmas, “Gifting” (2013) royal icing (royal icing (applied to the walls and windows)
Allison Baker
Alison Knowles, Bean Rolls (1963)
A fluxus production. designed by George Maciunas in 1963. A four inch square cube contains seventeen tiny scrolls, each with material about beans in songs, recipes, stories, science, cartoons, ads etc. Each scroll is different held together with a small dental rubber band. Four or five real beans are in a can to make a sound in a book when it is shaken. Edition of 200. Out of print.
Carron Little “The Queen of Luxuria” (2011)
The Queen of Luxuria did a five hour durational performance at Jackson Junge Gallery in October, 2011 for Chicago Artist Month. The performance involved getting into face by putting on her gender plates and make-up, interviewing members of the public about their sleep dreams, writing poetry and thinking and then creating drawings from the poetic imagery with ephemeral material such as eggs, icing and sugar.
Elena Katsulius & Erin Peisert, “She. Never. Gives. Up” (2011)
Best Performance Featuring Cake: Mass Action: 137 Cakes in 90 Hours by Brown Council
In August 2012, the Sydney-based performance collective Brown Council embarked on a monumental project involving the production of 137 cakes in 90 hours. The four members of the collective–Frances Barrett, Kate Blackmore, Kelly Doley and Diana Smith–set out to back every recipe in the Country Women’s Association cookbook Jam Drops and Marble Cake, “pushing the domestic task of baking into a grotesque spectacle of extreme proportions.” The collective baked all of the cakes with five hours to spare over four sleepless nights. —M.F.
Best Example of a Food-Art Culture War: The Story of Chickens: A Revolution by Amber Hansen
Amber Hansen ruffled feathers when she proposed to travel five chickens in a coop through downtown Lawrence, Kansas and, after locals had gotten to know the birds, slaughter and cook them up for a community potluck. Meant to “addresses the complex relationship shared between humans and animals,” Hasen’s idea elicited unenthusiastic responses. Online, commenters passionately pleaded for the birds’ lives and maliciously questioned the project’s artistic merits. Local officials stepped in and banned The Story of Chickens citing violation of city ordinances. Hansen modified her project sans chickens, yet one point she was trying to make was still easy to see: the further removed we are from animals, the easier it is to accept the everyday processes that deliver them to our tables. As Hansen bluntly states, “For humans to consume meat, an animal must die.” —N.C.