CRITICAL REFLECTION
Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art 1606 Paseo
de
SITE Santa Fe Peralta, Santa Fe
SITE SANTA FE BOASTS A SPRING “SEASON OF ART, FOOD, AND FRIENDS” with its new show, Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary
Axle’s installation comprises a whole room that
Iraqi date syrup on the plates. To further complicate the
Art, which surveys “food as art” and has prompted many
appears a little superfluous. The best part is the beaming
dining experience, the plates were gifted Wedgwood
Santa Feans to question the very definition of art. Although
light that illuminates a central pedestal showcasing this
China from the Queen of England. Rakowitz called
Feast has a few incredibly iconic works for which Santa Fe is
week’s loaf of bread—glorified upon a sumptuous red
this event Spoils and considered it an investigation into
lucky, the show is not a SITE original and is passing through
pillow. Considering that bread historically fed the poor
whether the meal was “spoiled” due to the incredibly
town from the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum.
and propelled them into the working class, Axle’s Royal
earnest choice of dinnerware. It was not a peace meal
Three works by local artists are only in Santa Fe and
Breadshow seems ironic, if not insensitive. This May, the
but rather an untimely cultural fusion of American deer
include a film series by Jason Silverman, two long wooden
collective will collaborate with local bakeries who will
and Iraqi dates (which symbolize good prospects). The
tables built by SITE’s chief preparator, David Merrill, and
bake mini porcelain sculptures into loaves of bread and
restaurant received a cease and desist letter from the Iraqi
Axle Contemporary’s installation The Royal Breadshow.
sell them at bakeries, the Farmers Market, and Axle
government, requesting back their cultural heritage—at
Meanwhile, SITE fastidiously prepares for its ambitious new
Contemporary. The community is asked to participate in
which point the plates were repatriated in a videotaped
biennial series (SITElines, opening in July), the marketing of
making the sculptures and can pick up clay at SITE. Each
exchange. The events of Spoils are documented at SITE.
which combined with the show’s foreign origin makes Feast
loaf will have “a crown with a special laudatory word
Where once painters used food as fodder for still
seem peripheral. However, Feast is the first survey of its
and writings about bread,” inspiration for which derives
lifes to invoke the certainty of decay, food is now being
kind about an undeniably reoccurring medium—food.
from traditional celebratory breads, often called king’s
publicly consumed for the sake of art but it still holds the
SPREAD, SITE’s main community outreach, is a benefit
cakes, in which the prize winner gains “certain rights and
inevitability of disappearing. Feast’s emphasis on “social
dinner that raises funds for local artists. SPREAD 4.0 (won
responsibilities.” Hierarchy is inherent in Axle’s project,
practice” can be a little uncomfortable and confusing but
by Axle Contemporary) mandated a food-related focus for
but the disconnect between making bread for the poor
the diverse works nevertheless raise questions of supply,
all proposals, the first themed SPREAD to date. A request
and making bread for a designated, though temporary
sustenance, community, hospitality, and cultural exchange.
inciting “social practice” seemed an odd choice considering
king, is offset by the group’s plan to donate sale proceeds
If eating in public prompts viewers to reconsider these
the benefit’s emphasis on soliciting local art but it very tactfully
to feed the hungry.
things, then call it brunch, call it diplomacy, or call it art.
paved the way for Feast. Using humans and their sustenance
Michael Rakowitz (a Jew of Iraqi decent) found on
as a medium does not fit into a traditional art practice but
eBay looted dinner plates once belonging to Saddam
given society’s commodity-based infrastructure, consuming
Hussein. In collaboration with Chef Kevin Lasko of Park
food seems not just ephemeral but primal.
Avenue in New York City, Rakowitz served venison with
—Hannah Hoel Julio César Morales, production still from Interrupted Passage, two channel video installation, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Frey-Norris, San Francisco.
In the early 1970s, Bonnie Sherk highlighted her own animalism by posing mealtime as an alternative to hunting. Sherk staged a lunch at the San Francisco Zoo in a cage next to lions and tigers. The video documenting Public Lunch is at SITE, where visitors see Sherk sitting at a table, waiting to be fed. The juxtaposition of woman and lion is almost humorous as they publicly eat and lie down after their meal. Despite Sherk’s equation to an animal, she gets served—a luxury
that
signals
domestication
and
weakened animal instincts. Julio César Morales’s two-channel video installation, Interrupted Passage (2008), restages a feast in 1846 when Mexico surrendered to California. After being captured by American soldiers, the Mexican general Mariano Vallejo offered an all-day feast with his enemy rather than enter conflict. Morales’s video diptych juxtaposes footage of a sizable dead animal cooking in a pit with the refinement of an elegant dinner table, flatware, and servants. The visuals alone in Interrupted Passage reveal class disparity and a gap between survival and luxury. As relates to food, the story becomes a tale of culinary and cultural fusion.
APRIL
2014
THE magazine | 57