Patterson Beckwith, 'Unititled' (Rapid Seeing by Means of the Fixation of Movements in the Shortest Possible Time: Snapshots), 2006 | Photo © 2010 Museum Associates/LACMA
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EATLACMA has been a nearly year-long examination of the relationships among art, food, culture, and politics curated by the Los Angeles-based Fallen Fruit art collective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
This Sunday, the project culminates with Let them Eat LACMA–an all-day celebration with performances, exhibits and installations that will deconstruct and re-imagine both the museum’s spaces and the traditional view of food.
Founded in 2004 by artists David Burns (Art BFA 93), CalArts Critical Studies faculty Matias Viegener and Austin Young, Fallen Fruit investigates issues of urban space, neighborhood and public vs. private property—through the role that fruit plays in different societies. EATLACMA began in February and fused the collective’s mission with artwork from LACMA’s permanent collection.
The project incrementally unfolded with the seasons, with artists’ gardens planted and harvested on the museum’s campus, a number of hands-on public events and a concurrent art exhibition with works by Claes Oldenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Edward Weston, William Eggleston and others on display.
Dozens of artists and collectives will be participating in Let Them Eat LACMA, including CalArtians Mark Allen (Art MFA 99) of Machine Project, Liz Glynn (Art/Integrated Media MFA 08), Cloud Eye Control and Bari Ziperstein (Art MFA 04). Among the readings and installations to be seen or experienced on Sunday:
- A tomato fight;
- A song and story cycle on the mystery of the knife, fork and spoon;
- An electronic melon drumming circle; a watermelon eating contest;
- Salome seducing her lover through the language of food;
- A large Mandala of dinner plates ritually assembled and then dismantled by visitors who take home each plate;
- A Prison Gourmet selection of food served to prisoners in California jails;
- Chewing carolers;
- Belly listening sessions in which visitors hear digestion at its pinnacle;
- Pulitzer-prize winning food writer Jonathan Gold reading a text on Spam, inspired by the Ed Ruscha painting in LACMA’s collection, Actual Size, which depicts a flying can of Spam; and
- LA-based musicians Karen Black, Ronee Blakley and Phranc will sing for their suppers.
The events at Let Them Eat LACMA are free and open to the public with general admission ($10 to $15) to the museum.
Fallen Fruit’s Let Them Eat LACMA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Sunday, Nov. 7
11 am-8 pm
Below is a Fallen Fruit video from Show Us How You Eat, an audience participatory online project that’s part of EATLACMA.