Culinaria (Art + Food + Community)
Disjecta, Portland, OR -
DISJECTA CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER, PORTLAND OR Sep 23 - Nov 3, 2018
By Allyn Cantor
Throughout the fall, Disjecta brings together some of Portland’s finest talents in a series of collaborative events involving artists and chefs. This innovative exhibition and dinner series fuses art and cuisine in a way that encourages risk-taking, experimentation and the exchange of ideas between two very different modes of creation.
Bringing Portland’s culinary world into a visual and performing art space provides unique access to the creative process, with food and art being created in response to each other. The exhibition presents painting, sculpture, photography of fl oral arrangements, video projections, site-specifi c installations, and a new art bar by Ben Sanders, with Leah Brown (of Angel Face) acting as bartender-in-residence on opening night (Saturday, September 22).
A relaunch of Disjecta’s past dinner program, this new iteration includes work by artists Jodie Cavalier and MK Guth, Fernanda D’Agostino, Julie Green, Ben Sanders, Manu Torres and Jessie Weitzel. It will transform the Contemporary Art Center into a dynamic dining room where food serves as an entry point for community engagement, camaraderie and artistic opportunity.
In one of the art-food pairings, Green’s handmade wallpaper installation reflecting on the health of our oceans and unsustainable practices creates an intimate setting for a dinner by Johanna Ware (of Smallwares), who is known for her “inauthentic Asian” meals that span many influences. In another pairing, D’Agostino’s video installation sets a dark, but dreamlike stage for a dinner where guests will be led in an evening of feasting, storytelling and questioning, inspired by her grandmother’s weekly lunches that were open to all. Through these immersive sensory environments, the Culinaria events craft a platform for interdisciplinary expression, thought-provoking dialogue and shared human experiences.
disjecta.org
