Food is an important part of our lives and there is a lot that we take for granted about the food we eat. Food, and all that accompanies it, is the theme of a collection of art exhibits at Harbourfront’s Artport. On display is work by a number of artists who have been examining different food related issues. How we see food, it’s role in our lives, how healthy is it, it’s production, and how we obtain it, are just a few of the questions that are explored. We eat food but what about the parts we usually waste?
Below is a sample of what is on offer.
below: ‘Wearable Food – Hat’, 2014, by Sooyeong Lee, part of a series of photographs that displays food in atypical and unexpected ways. An acorn squash fascinator is precariously perched on her head.
below: ‘Frugivore Project’, 2011-ongoing, by Amanda White, an attempt to communicate biologically with tomato plants. White bought tomatoes from the grocery store and ate them. She harvested the seeds after they had passed through her digestive system and then planted them. After the plants bear fruit, it is eaten and the cycle continues.
below: ‘Foraged Palette’, 2015, Thea Haines, made with wool, silk, linen, hemp and cotton with natural dyes. The dyes are made from food waste such as carrot peels, onion skins, pomegranate skins and avocado pits.
below:‘Strain to Absorb, 2015, by Lisa Myers, three digital files running simultaneously. Blueberries contain the pigment anthocyanin which the artist produces from strained fruit.
below:‘Accidental Hunter’, 2014, by Erin Riley, hunting with a rifle received as a gift from her father and taking pictures of the event.
below: ‘Delicate merchandise!”, 2014, by Lynn Price, oil on paper. The title comes from a poem called ‘Ode to a Lemon’ by Pablo Neruda (see bottom of post)
below:Functional Ceramic Tableware, 2005-2015, by Bruce Cochrane
below: Trading Places, Victoria Piersig. A series of photographs from a journey spent onboard a ship transporting wheat from Thunder Bay to Montreal.
below: cookie cutter rings and brooches, by Andree Wejsmann
below: Teerex and Triceratops Corn Cob holders, 2012, by Lana Filippone
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‘Ode to a Lemon’ by Pablo Neruda
Out of lemon flowers
loosed
on the moonlight, love’s
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree’s yellow
emerges,
the lemons
move down
from the tree’s planetarium
Delicate merchandise!
The harbors are big with it –
bazaars
for the light and the
barbarous gold.
as I walk Toronto 