EXPLODING PLASTIC INEDIBLE | WRITTEN BY ELLIOT LESSING
Over the years, I've curated a good handful mouthful? of experimental exhibitions, interdisciplinary projects and unusual events that have food at the center of the action. This usually produces delightful and unexpected results while dissolving some of the pesky boundaries that sometimes exist between the so-called Art World and well everything else. Food quite naturally has a universal appeal and is a beautiful medium for artists to get right down to the basics of Life here on Tiramisù Firma, explore personal or public identity, discover our primal drives and at its best: reveal and ultimately interrogate the sometimes complex politics that surround issues involving the body, survival and control.Â
Off the top of my head, here's a very short list of artists du jour and food-centric projects that continue to inspire my curatorial practice and satisfy my hunger for art that beats it, heats it and eats it. The menu is as follows
Pablo Picasso, Glass of Absinthe (1914). I'll take 2 please. Picasso's woozy sculptural mash-up incorporates a real absinthe spoon, blends the authentic with the representational and comes up with a trophy-like homage to the true darling of late 19th & early 20th century bohemian artistic culture in Paris: Lee Fee Verte
Daniel Spoerri, Snare-Pictures, Anectdoted Topography of Chance, Eat Art (1960 onward). Any time an artist does a new project with food, I wonder: "Are they aware of Daniel Spoerri?" Check out his wiki for a perfunctory overview of this prolific Fluxus artist's work. Leftover breakfasts, Duchamp's food scraps, used dishes and half-eaten dinner party leftovers fixed to tables and hung on the walls, gallery performances of signing & rubber-stamping store-bought cans of food (1961!) and yes cooking and feeding meals to gallery guests with actual art critics serving as waiters (1963!) are just a taste of Spoerri's visionary and epicurious work. Don't be it – Eat it!
Linder Sterling, Meat Dress (1982). Over 30 years before Lady Gaga shaved a few eyebrows, a punky art pioneer named "Linder" decorated every table in Manchester's notorious Hacienda club with a paper plate equipped with a bloody tampon and stubbed-out cigarette then let'r rip with a wailing performance of avant garde cocktail jazz in her original Meat Dress while her colleagues passed out meat scraps wrapped in pornography. While Lady Gaga or her marketing team or whatever What's the dif? eventually landed a diamond-studded commercial contract with Intel Corporation for her "innovative" work, Linder remains one of the most compelling, edgy and predictive artists this side of Hannah Höch. So much provocative work in all mediums to discover, just look her up and pass the salt
General Idea, Nazi Milk (1979-1990). Originally from Toronto, this artist collective began their slash-n-burn campaign of early conceptual and media-based art in 1967 and artfully ripped open the AIDS crisis from 1987 through 1994. Lots of eye-popping artist projects here including wallpaper, balloons, pins, crests, posters, installations, magazines and videos -- all cocked and loaded and ready for consumption. Nazi Milk is no exception with its media-savvy imagery and propaganda-like sophistication suggesting that like milk, State Ideology can be bought, sold and consumed. Happily and willingly. Cute huh?
Zanhg Huan, Carolee Shneemann, Hermann Nitsch and the Vienna Actionists, Dieter Roth, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Janine Antoni -- Plus more both ON AND OFF THE MENU await your voracious yet finicky consumption.Â
Yum!
Hola , Muy Buen ArtÃculo. En Mà Casa Nunca Falta En Las Reuniones Familiares Y De Amigos , Un Buen Trago De Absenta. ¡¡¡ Salud Y República !!!. Un Saludo.