Subterranean Delights, 2012
A food installation & dinner benefit for BMOCA
September 29, 2012
“What happens when you mix loads of carrots, mackerel, bread, salami, lettuce, beets, dough, squid, noodles, cabbage, olives, installation, blue lights, burnt toast, gelatin, fish eggs, artists, willing helpers, delicious food, music and dance to help the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art? The answer is Subterranean Delights”. (Martha Russo) This food and arts experience transcended an edible realm rich with stalactites of hanging licorice strings over a mirrored table of chocolate penis stalagmites. Integrating performance art with installation via a model clad with edible scales of dried vegetable chips, Rebecca’s Pellucid cave was thus rendered a moving-breathing entity as the camouflaged model rustled about the clandestine space. Then passing through her ebony and ivory Mica Chamber, one found a nude male model lying upon a diaphanous table draped with a white shroud, whose body offered a corporeal platter blanketed with clusters of vibrant purple grapes from which attendees could pick and enjoy. Martha Russo and Emma Hardy’s gelatinous cast nude figure, complete with actual fish swimming throughout, provided an animated vision of the traditional carnal nude. Katie Caron’s interactive edible and colorful dioramas entertained children and adults alike throughout the night. It was designed with a space for one’s head to emerge from the edge of a liquified sugar pool, integrating one’s own portrait into the gustatory landscape. As the comestibles continued to oxidize in the open air, participants were reminded of the truly ephemeral nature of art and cuisine as we oscillate through various stages of growth and decay
Concept: to create an edible environment in and around a cave and a chamber. an edible diorama with stalagmites and liquid pools “picking pods”, giant drops hanging from the ceiling with vegetables, fruit (dried mangos, strawberries, lettuce, carrots, edible flowers, prosciutto, … grapes…), hanging off the pods for guests to gather around and pluck off a reclining model on a “floating” table as a human serving dish a model inside the cave covered with vegetable chips of varying colors painted nude models serving trays of food art
Artists:
Rebecca DiDomenico
Martha Russo
Katie Caron
Emma Hardy
Nikki Pike
Place: Temporary Swoon | 1200 Yarmouth (behind Bacco on Broadway) | Boulder, Colorado
Mixologist:
from Oak to create Glacier Chasers, with hand carved ice spheres and exotic drinks with limited color palette, green, pink, purple, red, black
Food:
from Radda tall column like structures, resembling stalagmites, pools of cold soup (pink Borscht, green?), pastries with chocolate drips and crystal sugar….
Subterranean Delights Review
Artists Rebecca DiDomenico, Martha Russo, the bARTer collective, Katie Caron, and Emma Hardy created an edible—for the less squeamish—environment on behalf of BMoCA.
BMoCA is no stranger to food art. It’s been a theme in the gallery’s events, and why not? It’s *ahem* ripe with metaphor. Everything will decompose, speaking to the transitory nature of time, and perhaps, our ideas of art itself.
“What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?” asks the woman behind a typewriter at the entrance to the exhibit.
Overheard: “Rattlesnake.” “A weird vegan cinnamon roll.” “Rabbit brain.”
This is all in an effort to prepare patrons for what they are about to enter into. A room with a bacon chandelier, tiny chocolate genitalia, grapes draped over a half naked—alert, but totally hesitant to smile—man, and a fishy, decomposing mold of a naked female body.
The displays have been meticulously slaved over, are intricate, quite ravishing, and invite the mingling crowd to have an intimate experience with their senses.
As I shyly photographed the grape man, I was quickly ushered aside by an obvious fan of Lovedy. She is an enchanting woman, sleekly dressed like a heroine from the Fifth Element. Her fan told me that the room I was standing in was inspired by an erotic gathering.
Where does the creative inspiration for say, the gelatin female body surrounded by fish, come from?
Emma Hardy’s husband said his wife has been creating paper exhibits for years to call attention to political matters. When he opened the fridge and saw the food supplies for this particular piece, he didn’t even ask. We both pause talking, so I can take a picture of young ladies’ head positioned at the end of the wiggly torso.
The event’s atmosphere was decidedly vibrant, leaving ample room for a patron’s most primal interpretations dressed as their most civilized selves.
Kudos to Cafe Aion for catering the event, and to BMOCA for the opportunity to marvel at food.
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Editor: Kate Bartolotta