After having just caught up on all the postings here, of love parades and
webbed futures, etc., my brain is a bit full. (I need to go off and see
some URLs to complete my experience of the posts...) But this bit about
food feasts interests me, and I wanted to tell of some performances in
which we partcipated here in NYC.
One of our closest friends, a woman called Margaret Hennesey, has recently
graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and is a fine chef. Due to
the pollution of her mind by too many artist friends, she came up with the
idea of doing several performances that were also meals. This gave her the
opportunity to try out some strange menus while simultaneously involving
several of her friends who would do anything to receive a free meal.
Each evening had a theme. The one for which Dawn and I performed was the
"Christmas Pagent" which featured foods that were available at the time of
Christ, or at least inspired by the same. Example performances during the
evening include my role as a centurian singing in Latin during the second
course, or Dawn performing, admittedly with some lack of authenticity I am
sure, a belly dance.
These performances of "diner" theater as she calls them were all good,
clean fun. But now I imagine Johannes' idea of doing these dinners, and of
including the particular bent of this group -- things technological. The
thing that interests me particularly here is the act of eating (the subject
of food) and how it relates to the body, and subsequent to that, technology
Here we are, fueling our little machines. But also pleasuring ourselves
with the most delectable items. The act of eating is so tightly woven into
the concept of the coporeal, and in fact, for the meat-eaters, we take in
the bodies of other beings to sustain our own.
I am rambling a bit, but I think there is something to for us to do here. I
think that Ms. Hennesey could be persuaded to partcipate in a feast if one
is planned. Should we do this?
Now I must eat.
-- Mark
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Mark Coniglio, Artistic Co-Director | troika@panix.com
Troika Ranch | http://www.art.net/~troika
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