A question was posed by my Lecturer ... "What makes this Art?"

A question was posed to me by my lecturer "What makes this art?" And I had to think about it "a lot!" ...

Did I think I could cook and serve kai and call it art? What was and where did my idea come from?

To be honest I think it started with what my fellow students were eating for lunch how cheap, deep fried and full of sugar there food was. I also did a collaborated work last year about how we need to get back to sitting down at the dining table as families and looking at how processed the food is. It was at breakfast club I saw the change in people sitting down eating food and having conversations it seemed to me to be a great way to start the day.



On the 20th of May I had a lucky by chance conversation with Harriet Stockman from Public Share and I asked her to explain to me "What makes this art?"
She told me as artists who work with clay that it's starts with the site where they collect their clay, and the history of the site and so I guess my site would be Mikes garden or the earth in which the food I cook grows. The history could be a generational thing for both Mike and myself as all his family have both flower and vegetable gardens the knowledge passed down my his parents who had a huge family and it was one way to sustain such a large family. For me the history of food cooking came from my Dad as it was my responsibility to cook the dinner and from my grandmother who thought that her grandchildren should know how to cook and soup was one of her favourite things to teach us to make and my Poppa had a wonderful garden too. I am the main cook in our family and I have taught and continue to teach my children to cook.

I asked Mike about why he liked to garden. He said that he has always had a connection to the earth and the insects and their role in pollinating the plants. He likes getting his hands in the soil. He also mentioned that it was one way for him to provide for our family.






These are the hands of a sheet metalworker yet they produce some delectable fruit and vegetables.

Corn is one of my favourite vegetables it's such a shame that they are seasonable

Multiplying spring onion

Some of Mikes tomatoes weighed over 500g and this was the first year that he grew eggplant which is now one of my favourite vegetables.













It's quite exciting when Mike comes in from the garden and there is so much to choose from it's nice to know where and how the vegetables that we eat are grown.

One day I lay amongst the potatoes to take this photo and  I must admit it was very peaceful

So I have a lot of material to work with and it's not limited to seasons, weather or availability. 

Public Share is a collaboration of artists who have a common interest, Harriet said it's about working together and passing on your knowledge and sometimes the only way you can do this is through conversation. As a family we always eat at he table and our conversation is always about the day. When presenting my project it was nice to have everyone ask me questions about the food I served. It was also nice for me to see the conversation in some of the photos that Nia took for me.

In this photo Shadrick was asking me why I made soup and bread as my project. It was nice to be able to share with him what and why I was doing. 

Participatory art is the interaction between the maker and the audience. As the maker I guess the art is more about the conversation about the food rather than the eating of the food.