Flour+Egg+Water (2006) explored the possibility of interaction between artists and strangers in the context of a gallery setting by having the process of making and eat dinner together be the catalyst for initiating interaction. By bring back the traditional method of preparing food into a gallery we challenged the ideology of “efficiency”, “fast food”, and the boundary of “art”.
For the first part of the show, we invited strangers from the streets into the gallery to prepare pasta from scratch. This part of show lasted three nights.
The second part of the show consists of artworks prepared by the 10 artists working for this project. I collaborated with Kelly Kehoe to create Awkward Dinner, in which we invited friends and strangers to have dinner with us over several nights. It started as an intimate dinner of 2-5 people each night. The dinner was video recorded and projected onto two TVs, one facing the diners, one facing towards the street. Passersby were able to communicate with the dinners through a microphone booth outside, and were recorded by the camera.
We decided to host a 20-person dinner for the last night. We invited friends, strangers, and friends of theirs. The whole process is included in the DVD of 24 minutes. It includes:
Chapter 1: 2 Artists + 22 Strangers, November 1, 2006
Chapter 2: All the diners were asked to write a message to say before dinner.
Chapter 3: Kelly Kehoe then interviewed each person while I recorded it on video camera.
Chapter 4: Grace Time: Each diner read the message written by the person on their right. They are video recorded by the person who wrote the message.
Chapter 5: Recording of how people interact with and without food.
Chapter 6: Everyone were asked not to talk for 5 minutes
Chapter 7: Resume to normal, Sue Goldstein interviewed everyone as they eat.
Chapter 8: Diners were given the authority to interview anybody and record it. The diner who has been interviewed then interviewed another diner.
Chapter 9: The awkward ending
Chapter 10: Credits
