Description

Temporary Spaces, Edible Places: New York (2015)

This participatory picnic inside a handmade gingham inflatable dome was the fourth in the Temporary Spaces, Edible Places series using food as a means to open up dialogues about place in various locations.

Hosted as part of an show at the AC Institute in Chelsea the picnic provided food that has long time associations with the city and invited guests to bring food that was ‘typical’ New York food to them. The picnic foods served as an avenue to discuss place, from localised personal food histories to the mega-gentrification synonymous with New York City. Guests at the picnic remembered the Lower East Side as a ‘no-go’ zone in the 70s, now an area unaffordable for the majority of people. This hyper gentrification of NY is often depicted through changing food establishments, such as gourmet mayonnaise stores which cater to a particular affluent demographic.

Each picnic in the series maps the dialogue onto the flooring during the event, leaving a document of the complex connections, experiences and histories that were discussed surrounding the specific foods in relation to place.

Edible Manhattan piece here