Food as Art Research - Essay Example

Blake Gopnik has some reasons for not accepting food as art. His reasons tell about its short lifetime of food, its temporary taste, less audience, its lack of complexity, less creativity, the profit motive of its creators, its objective to nourish people, its recurring needs, etc. In contrary to this, he has illustrated some experiences in elBulli restaurant for its chances of being an artist.

Compare and Contrast with other Related Articles:

There are some common features to be compared between the article of Blake Gopnik and the post in “From Still Life to Real Life: Food Art and Its Place in the Art World” by Kate Olsen. These include the lifetime of food and its simplicity. As per the television program “The Rachel Ray Show” done by Artist Jason Baalman, it is clear that the history and custom of food is an acceptable opinion as per the article of Blake Gopnik. I find some lack of information in the article “The Big Debate: Can Food Be Serious Art?” by Blake Gopnik when compared to others. It is not mentioned about the traceability of the origin of the art form of food. But it is clearly mentioned in the “Still life” article by Kate Olsen with some common instances around us. Also, the former lacks information about the statues formed out of carving the food materials. But, the latter points out the same. This reminds the statues formed out of butter by Jim Victor. Most of his creativity depicts animal life.

According to Blake Gopnik, food was not at all critical to being an artist. This proves that raw material is also important in forming the art of food. But in the “Still life” article, it is mentioned clearly through the experience of Janine Antoni, an artist.  In the case of Janine Antoni, she stunned museum-goers with her 1992 conceptual piece titled “Gnaw,” a 3-part installation piece consisting of both a 600lb cube of chocolate and a 600lb cube of lard that has been literally “gnawed” on every corner so that teeth marks are evident and large chunks on the corners are missing. Is it art? As Antoni explains, “I titled this ‘Gnaw’ because I am interested in the bite as a kind of primal urge. I love to look at a little baby when they put everything in their mouth in order to know it, and through that process, they destroy it.  I was interested in the bite because it was both intimate and destructive” (Kaufman, 2010). You can see the food arts in different forms in museums. Some of them make us feel and involved in the story or ethnicity on passing by or having it.  This is explained with an example from a piece “Untitled (Portrait of Ross)” written by relational aesthetics artist Felix Gonzales-Torres in 1991. (Kaufman, 2010).

Conclusion:

In my view, it is clear that food can be considered as an art to an extent on the ground of the above-mentioned articles. When you see an artwork made out of food materials, it is special for your eyes as it has happened in your lifetime and cannot expect again in the future. The food can be artistically formed by some creative artists. So it takes its forms in accordance with the thoughts and ideas of different persons. For instance, in the article “What is Fine Art?” by artist and author Dolores G.Kaufman, she explains: “When we call something fine art we are signifying a context into which the object has already been placed or the context into which we are placing it. Context is, quite simply, a room-like space into which we place an object. Take an apple for example, and place it in the kitchen. In that space, it is perceived as food for eating. Appearing in a space designed for religious prayer or meditation, the apple could be seen as an offering or as a symbol of the forbidden. Or, an artist just might grab it from the kitchen and take it into her studio where ‘voila!’ it becomes food for art” (Kaufman, 2010).