In a unique show of art installations, Khoj International Artists’ Association has brought together seven multimedia artists from around the world to explore the notion of food.
Having worked during a month-long residency at Khoj Studios in New Delhi, the artists have explored the broader ecological thematic preferably in public spaces around the Capital, with a special focus on the notion of food: food as an artistic medium (incorporating performance, art installations and interactive events that re-examine the significance and relevance of food in the social context), the connection of food with the body or as a primary ritual that fosters engagement and collaboration.
Nagpur-based Shweta Bhattad explores the production, excess and apparent scarcity of food, particularly in light of the (Indian) government’s policies, and the mismanagement of our agricultural resources over the past few decades.
Her work, titled “A Three Course Meal and Dessert of Vomit”, addresses issues surrounding inaccessibility and dearth of food for many living on the streets in contrast to grand celebrations, festivities, large-scale catering establishments with its abundance and excess of food and its subsequent wastage. This excess and wastage of food is referred to in Bhattad’s work as “vomit”. “This ‘vomit’ is seen in the light of its broader context of induced starvation, with the producers of food — farmers — driven to suicides and the marginalised and a vast section of the population compelled to rummage for food,” Bhattad says. Her project attempts to experientially reflect upon these disparate issues by incorporating the making and use of fake, but real-looking “wax” food.
Alfonso Borragan from the United Kingdom builds his own artefacts to hunt light and fix it in pictures. His show at Khoj is titled “Fosfofagias” — ceremonies in an intriguing dark space with fluorescent drink and food; a collective celebration where senses become affected by the absence of habitual light, maximising taste, touch and smell. “I propose to create food interfaces in markets and public spaces through exploring the concept of selling “fluorescent” food in the streets of Delhi,” he explains. “The participant is invited to eat the artistic piece and the ingested light will be ejected from the body causing fluorescence in the organic waste: faeces, urine, sweat, saliva or tears.”
Over the last few years he has focused his research on rituals in the urban city as a medium to communicate his work. “A substantial part of my work in the last couple of years has grown to be reminiscent of communal celebrations and rituals. ‘Food’ has emerged in my work as a strategy. People congregate around a table, building immediacy and communication and linking the notion of ancient rituals with present-day habits of a modern society. The banquets and ceremonies are a universal representation of daily customs where the viewer opens out to an experience,’ Borragan says.
Muhammad Hidayat, a.k.a. Julian “Togar” Abraham, a media artist, musician, programmer and social researcher from Indonesia, aims to educate people on how to make safe and cheap fermented alcoholic beverages through his work “Fermentation Madness” by incorporating a series of workshops and an installation.
Frame Works Collective artists Ruchika Negi and Amit Mahanti from New Delhi explore the relationship between research, media and art practice in their works. They believe that as food travels, it may take on its own dynamics — social, cultural and political. Exploring the nature of multi-disciplinary art, “The Idea of the Biscuit” is an attempt to unravel the politics of malnutrition and its proposed treatments, including a fortified biscuit manufactured in India.
Other interesting works are by artists Andrea Caretto and Raffaella Spagna from Italy, who have been working together since 2002. Focused on experiencing different aspects of agricultural production — industrial and organic farming, open-air markets, stalls and vendor-carts selling on the streets — sale and consumption, Caretto and Spagna trace the several histories that accompany the Delhi orchards to the present urban vegetable gardens, while also exploring the way people use urban and semi-urban spaces in relation to food production.
“Through our work, we want to examine the web of relations that exist among different elements of the food chain: soil, human beings and other vegetal and animal organisms. Our work at Khoj will be the result of an aesthetic exploration of the food cycle from its origin (the soil) to its consumption,” the artists say. The show is currently underway at Khoj Studios, and will conclude on April 22.