Exhibition of Your Own - Food and Dining - Essay Example

Exhibition of your Own: Food and Dining Introduction Every other day in today’s world we see new things replacing theolder ones and old objects, researches and inventions go down the drain. We may term this as progress or a step further. Most of us have made ourselves believe that anything that is old should be thrown away and replaced by something new. Museums and art galleries seem to perish as people look as them as wasted item. After visiting many museums and carrying out a study during the semester, my thoughts over a few things if not all, changed. Well food and dining exists ever since this world existed. This is the reason what makes comparing the modern era and the ones thousands a year ago really interesting. As this gives a fair reflection how much development has been made over centuries. I came across many artworks and objects and find them as useful for today as they were ago centuries ago. Some may even be considered a masterpiece even in today’s modern world with science, technology and computers doing most of our planning and execution. Here are a few items I came across in museums and which actually forced me to give a thought about whether we have excelled our forefathers and previous generations. It even made me giving a second though about us being more civilised and organised than them, especially when it comes to having food and serving our guests. It amazing to actually see how much these objects fit in our modern day society even if they are implemented or made up exactly the same way as they were thousands of years ago. That is, same material, same dimensions and same design. Covered food vessel (Qi Hou Dun) This object is from the Chinese culture and is back dated to a couple of centuries BC. Covered food vessel also known as Qi Hou Dun is a reflection of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-276 BC) in China. It is made out of bronze. The height of the vessel is around about 18 cm, width is about 30 cm and it has a diameter of around 24cm. The vessel has handles on the side. This seems to be for making carrying it around comparatively easy. There is some carving inside the bowl. The carving is something written in Chinese language along with some symbols. Its cover has loops on top of it which makes it easy to uncover the food if it’s closed tightly. The material bronze makes the food vessel really durable and making sure food can be kept safe and warm easily. The bottom and cover of the vessel make a perfect fit when bonded together. This acts as a lock as a touch more effort is required to open the vessel. This lock makes sure that vessel is not opened easily. The only way the vessel can be opened is by pulling the loops on its cover. This leads to a possibility that even if such items drop off the table or from the hands of the carriers the food may remain safe and doesn’t spill out. The intellect of the maker and designer is to be acknowledging as nowadays such spillage, wastage and breakage is quite usual. The material, design and the plan behind its creation is absolutely amazing. Food Box This item is from the late 16th, early 17th century. It reflects the Japanese culture. It is made out of gold and silver and is made on black lacquer. The beautiful box is decorated with mother of pearl. Its decor is really attractive and eye catching. It looks more like a modern day decoration piece rather than a food box. It has a striped decoration along with some Chinese figures. At first glimpse this may seem to be one large vessel or box but in actual it has different compartments. These compartments may be filled with different types of edibles without them getting mixed with each other. The top most compartment has a lid to it that may be opened by simply lifting it. The base of each compartment below acts as a cover for rest of the compartments. They are four compartments in total. These can be accessed by sliding the above compartment sideways. This ensures that no food is spilled or wasted or even mixed while accessing other compartments. Each of the four compartments is of same shape and size and when all are closed, it looks like a perfect closed box with beautiful hand work. The design and decor can easily match any of the latest machine made modern day designs. It is another piece of art that seems to be equally effective if not more, with respect to the latest technology and trends of the society. Its colour, design, decor and usage make it a perfect modern day fit. Multi-Lidded Vessel Dated back to the mid-20th century, this item comes from the Zambian culture or the Lozi peoples. The height of the vessel is about 31 cm and it has a maximum width/ diameter or around about 24 cm. The vessel is made of wood. From far away it looks more like a decoration piece for a vase to be placed upon. It is decorated with geometric and zoomorphic handles which became decorative sculpture used in Western collections which reflects or characterize Lozi culture. It is so appealing and pleasing to the eye that mostly people wants to use or keep it as decorative ornament in their houses. Its gentle engraving, carving and colour reflect that it is from a time where decorated vessels were a norm in the society. The design on this classy and sophisticated example integrates two mound bowls. The cover of the big round bowl serves as the base since it is at the bottom and help holding the other small bowl, which is oval in shape. This smaller bowl also has a lid for covering and on top of it there is a handle which resemble to some geometric shape. The shape of the latter bowl is trapezoid which resemble to King’s palace, it is basically a very famous theme which is frequently portrayed on Lozi bowls. It is designed in such a way that food remains safe and the bowl maintains the temperature and keeps it warm too. The design helps not only to maintain the quality of food but also the temperature of the food. It is believed that stew and rice were served in the vessel. The stew in the top small bowl and rice is the bigger bowl which is at the base. Up till now, the pattern used ages ago is quite famous and in demand In many cultures in the modern world rice is often ate along with a curry or stew. This vessels fits in the modern society as not only it serves the food combination and style but also may save some space on the small kitchen tables or even on a feast where a lot of food dishes are served together and we often are low on space. It may also make the food table attractive with it looks and medium. Jar with Food Remains This is made out of ceramic and origins from Egypt and back dates to 1640-1550 BC. This jar was used for food remains during feasts and food gathering. It reflects how organised the Egyptian were back then. The jar does not have a stable base and hence was put on a base. This not only gave its stability but also ensured that it cannot be tipped over easily; as a metal base held it tightly, giving it more stability as compared any vessel made out of ceramic and having a stable base. The shape of the jar ensured two things. Firstly it could accommodate a lot of food remains and use up a small space. Secondly it had a decent height (also the upper part which was the inlet and outlet of the jar was comparatively small) so the remains did not give a bad look and feeling while being on the food table. The design and medium both make this vessel appropriate for the modern day. In some cultures and places we see food remains stacked up in the middle of the table or may be on the side of the plate which looks awkward at time especially during feasts. Having such vessels ensures that no such situation occurring. Secondly, the medium is ceramic which is comparatively cheap nowadays so we should not have a problem affording it. Now we would not want something expensive to keep food remains in, would we? Even if it is left on the table the jar would not look inappropriate and may be used as a decor object while food is not being served. Tables for Ladies This artwork is a reflection of a simple restaurant of New York back in the early 20th century. It was made by Edward Hopper during 1930. This artwork was made on a canvas by using oil paints. It shows a couple having dining, a waitress adjusting the food display and a woman at the counter, presumably a cashier. This artwork is from a side view, which actually shows the waitress adjusting things in the display which also includes the menu and supposedly a rate list or a special offer. An eye catching display along with an attractive price or discount may often lead to attracting many customers or clients and no doubt it is considered to be one of the best marketing strategies. If this strategy is implemented in this era, without any doubt, it will be a complete success and people will get crazy about it. If the display is attractive than you have a higher probability that it will be noticed. One noticed and a discount surely does force a customer to come straight in and check the place at least once. With a lady as a waitress and one as a waitress may also attract young girls and families who are usually more reluctant to go in places surrounded by men. Hence this artwork, even though it may have been made keeping a completely different aspect, reflects how even though technology has brought the world a step further, when it comes to dining and food, we still may stick to the quote old is gold. Irrespective of how advance or modern we get at the back of the mind people do consider a women as a good cook and prefer women over men when it comes to cooking or baking. Some women are known of presenting food in such a way that they can make people hungry and even those who are resistant to food may get attracted to it with no time. Universal Pressure Cooker Designed and invented by William J. Russel from America, this item is dated by to 1945, close to 70 years ago. It is made up of steel aluminium along with plastic. Its manufacturer were Landers, Frary & Clark from New Britain, CT. The item had a height around about 19 cm with a diameter of approximately 21.6 cm. It is a round vessel that has handles attached to it on the upper part. One handle is for just the cover while the other is attached to the upper side of the base. The handle ends of the pressure cooker are covered with plastic. This is to ensure that they is no problem in transferring the item while hot or even holding it while steering or taking out the food cooked. Plastic is used due to the fact that steel and aluminium also become hot when exposed to fire/burner, that is, they are good conductors of heat. This happens to be a safety measures. Another unique thing of this item is that it maintains its mineral and vitamin of the food when cooked. It also reduces the cooking time. This item is a modern fit. Nowadays people are much more concerned about vitamins and mineral and are also concerned about getting things done as quick as possible.. The material and dimensions are perfect for an average sized family . The plastic on it handles minimises the possibility of getting burnt and any unpleasant event occurring even when food is to be cooked quickly. Appendices 1. Covered food vessel (Qi Hou Dun) 2. Food Box with Striped Decoration and Chinese Figures Multi-Lidded Vessel 3. Jar with food remains 4. Tables for Ladies 5. Universal Pressure Cooker References Metmuseum.org. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Jar with food remains." 2000. Web. 21 May 2013. . Metmuseum.org. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Tables for Ladies." 1900. Web. 21 May 2013. . Metmuseum.org. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Food Box with Striped Decoration and Chinese Figures." 2013. Web. 21 May 2013. . Metmuseum.org. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Multi-Lidded Vessel." 2012. Web. 21 May 2013. . Metmuseum.org. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Covered Food Vessel (Qi hou dun)." 2013. Web. 21 May 2013. . Top of Form Rath, Eric C. Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. Internet resource. Top of Form Bray, Tamara L. The Archaeology and Politics of Food and Feasting in Early States and Empires. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 2003. Internet resource. MoMA.org. "William J. Russell. Universal Pressure Cooker (1945)." 1920. Web. 23 May 2013. .Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More