Art For Lunch

At first, I found it a little odd that London decided to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its wartime government’s introduction of food rationing, but after realizing that the rationing was a significant historical event, and that the imposed rations lasted for fourteen years after the initial announcement, I became intrigued. 

London’s Imperial War Museum has decided to commemorate the event with an interesting and extensive new exhibition called “the Ministry of Food.”

The tasteful exhibition (excuse my pun) explores the story of food from farms, gardens, docks, shops, kitchens and canteens and shows many interesting historical items and art, including a wartime greenhouse, a typical 1940s kitchen, and posters that reminded the public that a “Clear Plate Means a Clear Conscience.”

The exhibition displays how the British public responded and adapted to the food shortages, shining a positive light on British society of the mid-Twentieth century. Museum go-ers will see how the British people persevered (and will also notice that certain methods of saving - such as growing your own food, eating seasonal fruit and vegetables and recycling - are ones we use today).

“The Ministry of Food” pays tribute to those who lived (and died) during the dismal war and post-war years (ranging from the tens of thousands of Merchant Navy members who lost their lives to the housewives who waited patiently on seemingly endless lines in hopes of getting even the most meager rations to feed their families).

To read the entire article associated with this exhibition, click here.

Performa ‘09, a month-long biennial performance/ art event, began on November 1st. Jennifer Rubell organized the opening dinner, a feast for a crowd of 700, which incorporated biblical-themed food stations. The creative theme was depicted by three floors representing heaven, earth and hell. The top floor resembled an icy-white heaven; the middle floor, Earth, craftily displayed a ceiling-hung honeycomb, which dripped onto hundreds of Daisy May BBQ ribs. The bottom floor, ”Hell,” included apple trees and dessert.

The artistic presentation was even seen at the bar, where guests had to make their own drinks in a freight elevator full of liquor bottles.

Additionally, famed chocolatier Jaques Torres created seven replicas of Jeff Koons’s famous bunny sculpture, which guests cracked with hammers.

To read more about the delicious event, click here.

Next month, a McDonalds will open next to the Louvre’s underground entrance. This recent news has angered art-enthusiasts, collectors, and pretty much all of France, but apparently, placing fast-food restaurants and other chains next to famous sites is nothing new.

From The Guardian:

After 580 years and 24 emperors, Beijing’s Forbidden City got its first franchise in 2000 – a Starbucks. The shop’s sign was taken down in 2005 after complaints but it took half a million petition signatures (led by a popular TV news anchor who claimed it was “eroding Chinese culture”) before the franchise was removed in 2007. Still, this hasn’t kept Starbucks away from China’s Unesco Heritage Sites. In 2005, the Seattle-based coffee maker breached the Great Wall, setting up shop at the popular Badaling section.

Click here to take a look at some of the world’s most famos landmarks that are surrounded by some of the world’s most famous franchises.

(Image from the Brisbane Times)

In 1973, Salvador Dalí produced a magnificent cookbook entitled “Les diners de Gala”.  The book featured recipes that today we would consider rather unappetizing, but also contained incredible illlustrations.  It is often referred to as the “Dali Cookbook”.  It sets out a surrealist gastro-aesthetics that is at once visceral and ascetic, Dionysian and Catholic. [It] showcases Dali’s ornamentation of menus from such legendary restaurants as Maxim’s and La Tour d’Argent and features the recipes of their chefs. Dali stages himself within the sumptuous culinary mise-en-scene. Les Diners de Dali moves between ‘sado-masochistic pleasure’, ‘acute sybaritism’, Rabelaisian scatology, religious ecstasy, and anaesthetic asceticism.” (Richard Gough, On Cooking). With 136 recipes in 12 categories: exotic dishes; eggs & sea food; first course; meats; snails & frogs; fish & shell fish; game & poultry; pork; vegetables; aphrodisiacs; desserts; hors-d’ oeuvre.

The candy artist Enrique Ramos created a 40 x 30-inch portrait of the Detroit rapper Eminem with, well…. M&Ms.

This portrait even included rare M&Ms from pale blue and white color varieties. There were more than 1000 M&Ms used.

It was acquired by Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

Here’s an article for more information on the Eminem portrait.

The artist Jean Zaun makes incredible, edible, chocolate creations.

She tells the viewer: Edible chocolate paintings? Edible yes, but meant to be consumed by the eye, not the stomach

Basically, she creates remakes of well-known artworks, but in chocolate:

Mona Lisa-Da Vinci

This one is my favorite: Chocolate sculpture of  Van Gogh’s shoe paintings. It was bought by the Toledo Museum of Art when they were setting up an exhibition of Van Gogh works in 2003.

Here is Jean Zaun hard at work in her studio:

The chocolate art is made entirely of chocolate, food color, edible gold sugars and confectionery glaze. I wonder if they ever eat any of this food art…….

For more articles on Chocolate Art click here.

The Asia Pacific Contemporary art fair under the name of ShContemporary09 will take place on September 10-13, 2009.

The art fair will be set up at the Shanghai Exhibition Center (as seen in the above picture), attracting an international gathering of art galleries, artists, and art collectors. ShContemporary debuted in 2007 and proved to be a huge success for the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai. This year they have decided to focus on emerging collectors from the region and cultivate interest in art locally.

Some art galleries participating in ShContemporary include:

Beijing Space, Beijing

CAIS, Seoul / Hong Kong

SHiNE ART SPACE, Shanghai

Taka Ishii, Tokyo / Kyoto

Benamou, Paris

The Victoria and Albert Childhood Museum in London set up a Smarties exhibition, launching Nestle’s new addition of the blue smartie. Artists were asked to make reproductions of artwork using Smarties (making sure to include the new blue color).

Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe replicated

You can see the blue smarties make Marilyn Monroe’s eye shadow

Banksy Street Artist replicated in Smarties

The Bathers at Asnieres by Seurat replicated in Smarties

These artworks were created by photo artist Prudence Emma Staite.