Food and Intimacy

A waffle man from Ted Sabarese "Hunger Pains" shoot

We have been thinking about the intimate relationship of nurturing. The still life transforms into emotional landscape as the line between serving and self blurs. We are not alone in considering this relationship as today's article in the Wall Street Journal describes.

The Emotional Landscape 1

Carte de Tendre

Consuming Passion is a journey through time and emotional space traversing the changing terrain of nurture. We became conscious of the trek as we scaled the pinnacles of our breasts, through the swamplands of osterized fruits and vegetables, around lunch boxes and snacks, now muddling through a vast plain dotted by meals on the fly and holiday rituals. Along the nurture road the landscape of the kitchen, our bodies and the emotional landscape of loving, procuring, offering and growth observed is in constant flux.

Annette Messanger's work led us to the 18th century novelist and essayist of Mlle. Madeline de Scudery (1607-1701), who devised the Carte de Tendre (Land of Tender Friendships) where initiates to her literary salon traveled through emotion terrain toward de Scudery's affection. According to feminist historian, Gloria Feman Orenstein, women throughout history honored the absolute commitment of their friendships and viewed the literary salon as sacred space, matriarchal utopia and psychic self-portraiture.

The map of Tendre is a topographic allegory, representing the stations of love as if they were real paths and places. The country is bisected by the Inclination (Disposition), a river that runs south to north, joined by two smaller rivers, the Estime (Respect) and the Reconnaissance (Gratitude), before plunging ito La Mer Dangereus (The Dangerous Sea), which is separated from a reef-ridden narrows from Terres Inconnues (Unknown Lands). To the west are the decidedly choppy waters of the Mer d'Intimitie (Sea of Enmity).... -- Frank Jacobs

The Three Sisters

Time in the kitchen and in New Mexico made us aware of the three sisters.

Arriving at Plymouth, Massachusetts in December of 1620, the Pilgrims had little or no experience of farming. They brought no tools for fishing, nor did they have hunting skills or experience, which in Europe was restricted to the aristocracy. As religious and political immigrants, they embraced hard work and rejected any help from England. During their first winter, half of the 102 immigrants perished. Yet, within a generation, Pilgrims became a self-sustaining farming community.

Their salvation came from the Wampanoag Indians who taught them to hunt, fish and embraced the three sisters of nourishment: corn, beans and squash. These were the three crops that nourished all the Native Americans.

Potatoes and tomatoes were grown as ornamental plants in Europe in the 16th century and would not be adopted by the Americans until the 18th century. Two lesser vegetables were quickly adopted by the settlers as well as Europeans, sweet potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes.

-- Eating in America A History by Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont

2010 in Review

The Lunchbox Series, November

A cross-it-off-the-checklist endorphin rush:

ACTIVITIES and PARTICIPATION 2010

February

Ragdale Foundation Residency

begin shooting Consuming Passion and website renovation

October 14 launch

www.collectdotgive.org

Raised $19,920 since its inception in December 2009

There are still six more prints from Consuming Passion available for sale at the Collectdotgive.org site. 100% of the proceeds from the sales go to The Voices and Faces Project. Take a look.

Word of the site is spreading through a recent mention in this month's Elle Decor website.

July

Studio Space 2007-2 N Prospect, Milwaukee

August

Exposure Benefit for the MAM Photography Council: donation of portrait and workshop

Stella Critique Group participation

September - October

Society of Photographic Educators - Midwest Regional Conference 2010

Archive for Artemisia Artists and B. Ciurej and L. Lochman Photographic Projects

October

Bon Vivant for the Museum of Wisconsin Art: donation of portrait

Portrait after 30 years it was time to update our website image by participating in the Real Photo Postcard Survey by J. Shimon and J. Lindeman

December

Mail Chimp greeting card

Mini Portfolio Reviews MoCP/March, CAR/May, MNMVS/July and Stella/August

Travel NYPhotofest, Minneapolis, A.I.R. Opening

EXHIBITIONS 2010

June

To See Ourselves as Others See Us:

Contemporary Wisconsin Portraits

About the Curators: Graeme Reid, Assistant Director at the museum of Wisconsin Art and Debra Brehmer, art historian and Director of Portrait Society Gallery

JSOnline Review

July 2 - 24

Consumption Exhibition

The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO

Consumption is a complicated word with a myriad of meanings and usages.

About the Curator: Brian Paul Clamp working for nearly two decades as a curator, Clamp holds a MS degree in Critical Studies in Modern Art from Columbia University and is the author of thirty publications on American Art.

October

featured in Romania blog oitzarisme

About the Curator: Constantin Nimigean

December 1 - January 2

At Her Age Exhibition

For the inaugural CURRENTS exhibition series at A.I.R. gallery examines how women at any period in their life, old or young, view their changing bodies. The exhibition addresses the questions: "How does age affect experiencing one's sexual/sensual life?" and "How does age impact one's evolving personal and social relationships?"

About the Curator: Martha Wilson is an artist and Founding Director of Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. Since its inception in 1976, Franklin Furnace has presented and preserved temporal art: artists’ books and other multiples produced internationally after 1960; temporary installations; and performance art.

About A.I.R. Gallery: Advocating for women in the arts since 1972. A.I.R. Gallery is located at 111 Front Street, #228, in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn. Kat Greifen, Director.

More Anthropomorphic Vegetables in History

The Vegetable Museum - 07, Ju Duoqi, 2008 Napoleon on Potatoes

The Vegetable Museum - 03, Ju Duoqi, 2008 The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Pickled Cabbage

The Vegetable Museum - 19, Ju Duoqi, 2008 The Birth of the Radish

I am happy that I have found a way of life for women who love the home. I have found an environmental way of bringing work and life together. From imagination to reconstruction and postproduction, it burns through tons of boring hours....As a medium that decodes time, photography is my favorite. Everything has a spirit, each vegetable, each person, and each second, under careful observation, has extraordinary meaning. What makes me happy is that when I see Napoleon on his Potato, I can think back to when I fried him up and ate him at two in the morning in the summer of ’08. Through photographs, memory becomes sentiment. I never leave the house, and when I do I rarely travel more than 15 kilometers. In a studio, with a knife, a box of toothpicks and some vegetables, I can make small sculptures and slap together big scenes, using a woman’s most effortless and thrifty method of fantasizing about the larger world.

-- from Ju Duoqi's artist statement regarding her Vegetable Museum

Odd, Dark and Forgotten Christmas

Anthropomorphic edibles pictured on these postcards printed in the 18oo's were a favorite English fantasy associated with the eating and merriment of the season. These seem to sum up the season – the pot as fiery imp, Sir Loin getting knighted, and finally Santa served up as the main dish while elves dance round in glee.
From Christmas Curiosities, Odd, Dark and Forgotten Christmas by John Grossman.