FOOD AS MATERIAL, EATING AS PERFORMANCE

Course Description

This course has a $60 fee that will be assessed on the day after the Add Deadline for this quarter. Once the fee is assessed, it will not be refunded for any reason.

“[Martha Rosler notes:] ‘...consumption is proposed as a substitute for all kinds of human satisfaction and it is never adequate’” (Goodman 2022: 117).

From Kara Walker’s A Subtlety to Barbara T. Smith’s Ritual Meal, food and the act of eating serves as a site for artistic exploration. In this ten-week class, students will explore the materiality of food and the performance of consumption, working within sculpture, installation, and performance.

This course encourages students to research innovative ways of engaging with food as material and the act of consumption in their work. Drawing from art theory, cultural studies, and personal histories, students will build upon the foundations of their creative practice with an emphasis on research and exploration.

Through a combination of hands-on studio work, readings, demonstrations, and in-class exercises, students will develop their skills as creative producers, both conceptually and physically. Class projects will build upon readings, encouraging research at every step of their making process. By the end of this course, students will have artwork that engages with food and practices of consumption, connecting their personal histories with broader cultural and social ideas in contemporary society.