Elbowroom, the moving gallery, presents a thought-provoking encounter with food through Concoction – an experimental collaboration between food and art.
Elbowroom’s second exhibition, Concoction, is an exciting platform to delve into more critical debates surrounding food and power. Taking a multidisciplinary approach to co-create a playful and interactive dining experience followed by an exhibition, Elbowroom brings together emerging and established artists, designers and chefs to deliver contemporary artworks, furniture design and food to spark conversations ranging from rituals of nourishment, characters and narratives of the dining table to social implications of production, distribution and agency.
Artists Cedric J. Barford, Riah King-Wall, Samin Son and Kathryn Tulloch each contribute unique responses that revolve around the dinner table, with multiple ‘courses’ to work alongside, or exist as, an artwork. Drawing from family experiences of sustenance during wartimes in South Korea, Son’s performance installation is an evocative work that challenges perspectives on what it is to be adequately nourished. Tulloch’s sculptural installation brings life into the space through a series of abstract formations that allude to common and familiar objects. Barford’s video work is a visual traverse from pleasant to disturbing as he employs a variety of liquids to play on correlations between the real poison of nature and artificial ingredients deemed palatable, while King-Wall presents an unusual platter to accompany intricate graphite drawings that serve as an inquiry into tensions between edible and inedible organisms.
For the opening event, Concoction also brings into the fold emerging chefs Maria Hunt and Amber Sturtz - each creating a dish with distinct twists on the traditional and familiar that question the dynamics of fusion cuisine, cultivation of produce and it’s accessibility, while designers David Aravena & Chris Winwood, Matt Fanning, Tim Larkin, Duncan Sargent and Derek Winwood each contribute a purpose-made table to set the scene for this unusual dining experience.
By connecting a broad range of people through the universality of food, Concoction is a bold and intriguing build on Elbowroom’s curatorial practice that seeks to surprise and experiment with shape and context. In line with their unconventional approach to promoting the arts, Elbowroom has partnered with Urban Dream Brokerage to present Concoction in an unused space of Wellington - open to the public from December 7th-14th. Opening hours are Wednesday – Friday from 12-5pm and weekends from 11am-4pm.
The opening event on December 6th - which will accommodate a limited number of people - promises to be a multi-sensory encounter with food not to be missed. To secure your participation, head to the 'Upcoming' page to RSVP.