Sharing a meal

Ideas for Playing God exhibition.
Nolia Gallery
2011

Learning to inhabit the world in a better way
Sharing a meal

Utopia

A cinematic interpretation might lead the imagination towards the areas of the science-fiction or a distant future. One might conjure up in the mind images of grand cities or advanced metropolises with a perfect social-political system that house sophisticated and intelligent communities. Perfect systems running individuals. Though they work and think collectively ,individuality is not lost, one and all, discussing and constructing social documents and laws that place the individual and community above everything. These fictional societies are constructed communities with a rigid structure system that holds the peace and order intact and that technological innovations made these metropolises possible. Technology and reason work hand-in-hand.


Another clichéd image of utopia is living in the state of simplicity. It is the lack of technological wonder or complex law systems that create a society pure from distractions. It is a community that co-exists with nature. Nature in this context means the green stuff, the untainted, the un-mechanical, the chance and the free. Molly Nesbit, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Rirkrit Tiravanija wrote in the introduction piece for Utopia Station (2003) that defines utopia as ”an ancient search for happiness, for freedom, for paradise”. It’s an old longing, that desire to return to the place where Adam and Eva once lived, but a world version of it. They also state that “itself has become a conceptual no-place, empty rhetoric at best, more often than not an exotic vacation, the desert pleasure island of cliché”. Thus the danger to take-it as a location on earth could be a mistake, thus one must look at the mechanics that would happen in a utopian state and ‘sharing’ is one of it.


Though nature is a good place to start, but not in a hippie, I love Mother Nature sort-of-way, but to consider human nature. The way we behave with each other and how we occupy, communicate with each other and share in a space. In this account, the type of space I’m interested in is a social space, and the more specific type of social space is the opening day of an exhibition space. It a great setting for examining how audience interact with each other in the presence of objects imbued with seriousness. How the graveness of the situation could be removed and all the audiences be transformed into participants of the same importance and that they share with one another, maybe more than just objects but stories, experiences and most valuable time.


Nicholas Bourriard states that “art was intended to prepare and announce a future world: today it is modelling possible universes”. He implies the responsibility of art as a medium for social experimentation or value to the present instead of the old ideology of trying to predict a brighter future. A conception of the idea of a valuable present and not a better future is definitely very different from the conception of traditional Utopian ideals. The idea of a utopia seems fantastical and fleeting, as though it’s not plausible and within reach. He also says that “the role of artworks is no longer to form imaginary and utopian realities, but to actually be ways of living and models of action within the existing real, whatever the scale chosen by the artist.” Art or even architecture or architecture for art should function as a medium that acts as a catalyst to foster actions that create linkages between individuals. To acknowledge that the participants are individuals but still make them relate to one another that specific space is the aim.


Personally, I feel that a dash of intimacy would be vital and that engagement of the audience activates the intention of the piece. A mundane activity could be turned into an exercise that stirs up philosophical debates. “sharing a meal” is a set of objects meant to get the audience and participants to stop and mingle with each other. It main ingredient is a large prepared fusion dish by the artist, cooked for the gallery audience/participants at the artist’s home. Inspired by Rikrit Tiravanija’s happenings and performances where he would prepared meals for his audience in a formal gallery setting or New York and London and the meals ranges from Pad Thai, Vegetable Curry to Cup O’ Noodle. Tiravanija attempts to break the introverted contemporary lifestyle and places values on interactions and the experiential quality of engagement with not art-objects but gallery goers with the each other as well as with the artist. He once said that "There are still drinks to be had at the bar, and people to get drunk with, which is an experience you can't get on the Internet”.


The dish prepared which is an Asianized Spaghetti will be placed on a table in the gallery space and adorned by a number of condiments such as spices and vegetables. Eating utensils and plates will be provided. A printed text on the wall will show the ingredients of the Asian Spaghetti and list of the number of condiments to inform the participants what they are consuming.
The piece is meant not only about eating, but the social aspect of eating such as social interactions while eating and the aspect of sharing food, time and space. Eating is Asia is a social activity; family and friends share a meal, sit in the same room and exchange stories. In the gallery, while eating together at the same time, the participants subconsciously and collectively create a temporary community, a community where everyone is equally enjoying the same thing even though individuality is not lost, and choice is still evident as the selection of condiments will vary the eating experiences of each person. The Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei once said about Asian eating habits in an interview that “the way you pick up the dish, the combinations of foods, what you eat first offers a lot of variety. So nobody at the table will ever eat the same dinner, because it is determined by your choice, the order of the combination.” Sharing and exchanging in a space while still retaining your individuality is what I hope the piece could communicate whether the meal is delicious or unsavoury. Thus the work intends to address the topic of Utopia as a non-site, not as a location on earth whether fictional or true but as the types of activities that we do in a space.

Haffendi Anuar
London, 2011





References
http://blixa6.com/ci/tiravanija.html (1st of April, 2011)
Utopia Station (2003), http://www.e-flux.com/projects/utopia/about.html
Wellner, Mathieu, interviewing Ai Weiwei, Portrait of a Critical Mind, Mono.Kultur #22, Autumn 2009, Berlin.
Bourriade, Nicholas, Relational Aesthetics, La Presse Du Reel, First English Language Edition, 1998, Paris.