{"id":100187,"date":"2015-02-04T09:19:59","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T14:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=100187"},"modified":"2015-12-08T21:43:07","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T02:43:07","slug":"food-is-art-in-uconn-reads-exhibits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2015\/02\/food-is-art-in-uconn-reads-exhibits\/","title":{"rendered":"Food is Art in UConn Reads Exhibits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Thanksgiving,<\/a>
‘Thanksgiving 1984,’ photograph by Roe Ethrige. (Courtesy of Andrew Kreps Gallery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After reading Michael Pollan\u2019s Omnivore\u2019s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals,<\/em> the book selected for the 2014-15 UConn Reads program, Barry Rosenberg soon thought of a work he would want to include in the Contemporary Art Galleries exhibition he would curate for the spring semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first piece I thought about was \u2018Blister\u2019 by Keith Edmier,\u201d says Rosenberg, director of CAG, of the 1995 sculpture of a corn stalk that appears to have grown out of the floor of any gallery where it is exhibited.<\/p>\n

The CAG exhibit \u201cThe Omnivore\u2019s Dilemma: Visualized\u201d runs from Feb. 4 through April 25, with a companion UConn Reads exhibit, \u201cSweet Sensations,\u201d continuing at the William Benton Museum of Art through March 29.<\/p>\n

Pollan\u2019s best-selling book takes readers on what Publisher\u2019s Weekly<\/em> describes as \u201ca fascinating journey up and down the food chain,\u201d causing readers to change the way they approach reading the content label of prepared foods and consider how what they eat arrives to the supermarket and the dinner table.<\/p>\n

Rosenberg says in curating the CAG exhibit, he wanted to highlight the key points in Pollan\u2019s narrative, tracing the author\u2019s cross-country journey from Midwest corn fields to Chicago stockyards and fast-food restaurants. The multimedia show includes sculpture, video installation, photography, painting, and graphic design.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the book, Pollan\u2019s family stops at McDonald\u2019s on their way to a Midwest farm. It\u2019s about farming, but where corn turns into cornstarch and then moves to food engineering,\u201d says Rosenberg. \u201cMy exhibition presents meals in terms of art content, since the book is about creating meals and enjoying the experience of sitting down at the table together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Heavenly<\/a>
‘Heavenly Donuts,’ 2014, by Peter Anton. (Courtesy of the artist and UNIX Gallery, NYC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The exhibit includes direct text from the book, such as: \u201cThe shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community,\u201d and \u201cWhen chickens get to live like chickens, they\u2019ll taste like chickens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The works show contrasting views of a meal, from the celebration of a family gathering in Roe Ethrige\u2019s color photograph, \u201cThanksgiving, 1984\u201d which was made in 2009, showing a woman sitting at a table, to the stark imagery of Mat Collishaw\u2019s \u201cLast Meal on Death Row,\u201d a photograph of dinner for a death row inmate that includes fruit, vegetables, cheese sticks, and two glasses of milk.<\/p>\n

Food is seen through a range of artistic genres, including still life: Sharon Core\u2019s photograph \u201cEarly American \u2013 Still Life with Steak\u201d and Mia Brownell\u2019s \u201cStill Life with Meat Flower;\u201d landscapes: \u201cCorn Field\u201d and \u201cPotato Field\u201d by David Allee; and the seemingly abstract: \u201cUntitled (Pasta Painting)\u201d by Scott Reeder; along with realistically rendered canvases \u201cBiosphere \u2013 Laboratory\u201d by Alexis Rockman and \u201cCocktail\u201d by Frank Moore. Rosenberg says much of the art addresses the questions Pollan raises in his book about economic issues and health concerns related to the nation\u2019s food industry.<\/p>\n

\u201c’Biosphere,’ for example, is about food engineering and what the future can hold for us. The Roxy Paine sculpture \u2018Untitled (Mushrooms)\u2019 is from the part where Pollan goes mushroom hunting. His mushrooms are all poisonous or hallucinogenic, but they\u2019re beautiful,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Chocolate<\/a>
‘Chocolate Cheesecake,’ 2010, by Margaret Morrison. (Courtesy of the artist and Woodward Gallery, NYC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSweet Sensations\u201d at the Benton focuses on the sweet and sugar-laden foods that contain corn syrup, a theme in Pollan\u2019s book. The works selected by assistant curator Jean Nihoul, a former professional chef, are colorful and at times whimsical.<\/p>\n

There is a pairing of sculptures showing cereal boxes dripping with sugar. One by Rachel Lee Hovnanian, \u201cSnap, Crackle, Pop,\u201d contains Rice Krispies, often used to make a sweet dessert. Another by Desire Obtain Cherish is titled \u201cMarried to Success,\u201d that contains boxes of Wheaties, known as the \u201cBreakfast of Champions,\u201d showing a championship athlete on the front. Among the stars are golfer Arnold Palmer, basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics, and Olympic medalist Sarah Hughes.<\/p>\n

Gina Beavers uses acrylic and pumice on canvas to create three-dimensional works, including \u201cFood Porn (Chicken and Waffles),” and Cherish has a series of sculptures titled \u201cMeltdown,\u201d showing giant lollipops stuck to the ground.<\/p>\n

Photographer Joe Nanshe\u2019s \u201cRocket\u2019s Red Glare\u201d is a series of 12 images showing the meltdown of a red, white, and blue ice pop.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood for Thought Symposium\u201d will take place at the Contemporary Art Galleries, 830 Bolton Road, Storrs, on Feb. 4 at 4 p.m. For more information, go to the CAG website.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFood Matters: The True Cost of Industrializing our Food Supply\u201d will take place on March 10 at 4:30 p.m. at the Benton Museum of Art, 245 Glenbrook Road, Storrs. For more information, go to the Benton website.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two exhibits based on Michael Pollan\u2019s ‘Omnivore\u2019s Dilemma,’ the book selected for the 2014-15 UConn Reads program, open today on campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":100195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1711,1914],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-100187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-sfa"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 18:26:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100187"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100207,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100187\/revisions\/100207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/100195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100187"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=100187"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=100187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}