Eat Art

I finished work early, watched some cookie-cutter 7pm bridal show and I’m home alone. What a fulfilling lifestyle. But this quiet time has given me the chance to explore things I’m really interested in – the link between food and art. Earlier this year, I visited my lovely friend Anna in Stuttgart, Germany. It was a fantastic few days! For me, a highlight was the ‘Eat Art’ exhibition in the Stuttgart Art Gallery. I don’t often like visiting galleries in small cities as they often contain boring landscape paintings, but this one was great.

The link between food and art is interesting. It’s like a crossover between the ordinary, commonplace and possibly mundane aspects of everyday life (food) AND art history, aesthetics, conventions of art museums. The gallery casts a spotlight on food and encourages the audience to question the ethics/ideas/issues behind food consumption, the appearance of food, what food is used for, the social value of food etc. Putting food in a gallery is also like putting food on a pedestal – this could encourage the audience to question ‘what is art’ and whether food has ‘artistic/aesthetic value’. Food is perishable but conventional art is not, but food art any 'less valuable' than paintings with acrylic paint, marble sculptures, portrait photographs?