The Taste of Sharing
In my final work ‘The Taste of Sharing’ a performative act will be executed to bring together a collective experience. One of the most simple and natural ways of bringing people together is cooking and food. A time that can be dedicated to one’s self with the respect and presence of others. My plan is to use the simple act of cooking to make a statement
In creating the final piece, I personally handcrafted 100 pots and spoons, 10 cutting boards, 10 knives and 10 cushions. I have engaged 10 individuals who will take the role of performers, and the participants will be the audience. The performers will be cutting the vegetables and transferring them into the big pot. I will be focused on the production of the soup, adding the correct spices and keeping the consistency under control. The performance will form a semi-circle around a big pot of soup, participants will be welcome to enter the semi-circle and observe the act of cutting and cooking. When the soup is ready it will be distributed to the participants, this act can provide up to one hundred individuals with the experience of sharing the soup.
By giving such significance to these everyday objects used, the experience of the performance will be stored in the objects. The function of the objects after the performance would have changed, they become something more than ordinary. The function of TC has a great importance upon this final artwork.
The artist (myself) is using craftmanship to get into a trance, the physical action behind the making of the knives, pots, spoons and cutting boards have an encoded message, the ultimate desire to channel the experience of sharing. This is crucial to my performance because a physical action and intention have been put into creating these objects that have increased their significant power, there is solidified energy that has gone into it. The intention of the artist is being translated into the objects, therefore the artist wants to channel and create a context in which coming togetherness and sharing can be taken into action, by the art of cooking.
The pots and spoons will be kept by the participants, the knives, cutting boards and cushions will be kept by the performers, as a reminder of their participation. My hope is that the objects will be used in the daily lives and evoke the experience of the performance. The artist will remain with none of the material objects, as he is just the provider and the creator of the experience.
My aim is that every time the objects will be used, they will remind the owners of their participation in the collective, and hopefully, the story will be stored and passed on as long as the object exists. With this art piece, I am attempting to take the art of cooking, making and participating in the core of its essence. With this simple act, I would like to show the vastness and the importance of it. The artist’s statement is to emphasize the importance of the raw experience itself.
I hope that my thesis and my statement will be combined to complete the balance of concept and matter, air and earth, salt and pepper.
Thesis – The Art of Trance Channeling Final
