Artifact 4: Video; Is Food Art
Artifact 4: MULTI MEDIA ESSAY – Is Food Art?
OBJECTIVES:
- Examine methods for evaluating qualities of art, such as product versus process, the difference between craft and fine art, must art be archival, and what is an aesthetic reaction.
- Explore the notion of food as an artform.
- Consider cultural differences in the production and consumption food.
ORIGINAL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOHDNURopjs&feature=youtu.be
REFLECTION:
I really enjoyed completing this assignment because it was such a different way to approach understanding the varying views and philosophies around what constitutes art. While I found Elizabeth Telfer’s piece, Food as Art, interesting, it was dense. Yet, when I got the opportunity to incorporate her ideas into the questions I formulated for the video interview, the flow of her thinking and therefore my understanding was much clearer.
The main focus of the interview of my roommate and baker Arianna as she created the fruit tart was her view of food as art. I did ask one question about food as an art versus a craft but we did not have time to dive as deeply into that subject as I would have liked. My interest was further peaked when reading C.R. Sanders piece Introduction: Body Alteration, Artistic Production, and the Social World of Tattooing because he too takes up the subject of art versus craft. What is the difference between arts and crafts and who gets to decide?
For her analysis, Telfer offers several theories in grappling with the art versus craft characterization of food and/or cooking. For example, she offers that the, “… distinction on the basis of the purpose to which the artifact is to be put: if it is intended for the contemplation it is a work of art, if for use it is a work of craftsmanship … as well as … art is original creation, whereas craft is carrying our an instruction, following a convention, or employing a technique.” (15) She further examines the notion that … “ the distinction between art and craft is basically not between people but between different aspects of their work.” (15) She systematically debunks each of these theories with examples leading me to conclude that there is a lot of grey area in answering this question. Telfer does ultimately land on the belief that the art of food is an art, albeit a minor one, but not without a lot of back and forth. For me the grey remains.
Similarly, Sanders, in discussing the renaissance of tattooing, likens it to a number of arts or crafts or what he calls creative endeavors. He says, “A variety of creative endeavors – pottery, weaving, photography, and tattooing, for example – occupy the grey definitional area separating art from craft.” (23) He goes on to outline the change in both perception of the tattoo artist as well the creation of tattoos themselves concluding that, “Contemporary tattooing is undergoing this transition from a (generally disvalued) craft to a (partially legitimated) art form.” (23)
It is interesting to me that one could substitute tattoos and tattoo artists for food and chefs in Telfer’s analysis and visa versa in Sanders’. In reading these analyses as well as that of Dissanayake’s lecture “Art for Life’s Sake,” I am struggling with the established and institutionalized definitions of art. And, I am back to my question of who gets to decide?
FUTURE:
Since completing this assignment, I have become much more aware of the food others and I prepare and eat. Is the preparer thinking about my reaction to what I will eat? I would love to have the opportunity to interview a professional chef about this topic as I would be interested in how his or her view align or differ from both my roommate whom I interviewed for the video and Elizabeth Telfer. In addition, it would be great to interview a tattoo artist along the same lines. In looking back at my second artifact and the video of the tattoo artist who has made an art (or is it a craft?) of restoring women’s nipples after breast cancer surgery, I wonder how he would characterize his work?
BIBLIOGRAPHY: