Hungry For Campbell's?
Humanity’s relationship to food has remained the same for most of our history - we need it to survive, to make us strong, and to keep our bodies functioning. However, when much of the world began surpassing the innate worry about feeding ourselves, we started looking at our societal, cultural, and environmental connections to food, sharing broader themes of our lives through a common human need. Here are 20 artists or art projects that have stood out through the ages.
National Historical Museum of Sweden (NHM) on Unsplash
1. Omega Mart
This interactive art installation is located in Las Vegas, and it’s quite the sight to see. At first glance, the store looks like a supermarket, but something seems a little… off. There’s a deep lore of the Omega Mart universe, which is still being solved today.
2. Claes Oldenburg
This Swedish-born sculptor is well-known for his large public art installations, but we’re specifically going to talk about his food. Oldenburg has created large replicas of cakes, ice creams, burgers, French fries, sandwiches, and many other everyday food items.
3. Fortify
Fortify is a film that looks at the dark secrets of modern food production, particularly of flour, and how the speed at which we make bread is the cause behind many health-related problems we see today.
4. Gordon Matta-Clark
This American artist was quite popular in the 1970s and is considered a pioneer of engaging socially with food-related art. His most popular piece was called FOOD, a restaurant in NYC’s Soho district that offered cheap food made by local artists.
5. Arcadia
This art installation blends the simplicity of a white-picket fence life with the nature of queer and homosexual thinking, complete with one loaf of baked bread that looks similar to a condom. The artist, Barney Pau, is an English artist who works with food, foraging, fermenting, and queer ideology into their work.
6. Hot Dog Sculpture
This 65-foot-long sculpture was created by artists Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw. It currently sits in Duffy Square, and every day at noon, the sculpture rises and shoots confetti out of the top. It’s an homage to the “Street meat” that you often find in NYC, but it’s also meant to be a thinkpiece on consumption and capitalism.
7. Jolanda Stokkermans
This Belgium-based artist rose to fame in the past few years after she decided to start creating various images with her meal prep. She made a turtle out of rice, salmon, and cucumber, a pie that looks like Freddie Mercury, and a rooster made entirely out of vegetables, just to name a few.
8. Félix González-Torres
Félix González-Torres was a Cuban-born artist who worked and lived in New York City during the latter half of the 20th century. Félix was openly gay, and much of his work centered on themes of homosexuality. His most popular piece, Untitled, featured 175 lbs of candy. Visitors were encouraged to take a piece of candy, making the pile grow smaller. Félix made this piece as an homage to his partner, Ross, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1991.
Amaury Laporte on Flickr on Wikimedia
9. Rirkrit Tiravanija
This international artist has spent his life bringing people together through art and cooking. One of his most popular exhibits, nicknamed Pad Thai, was an empty room, save for a small kitchen space. Instead of putting any art on display, Tiravanija cooked pad thai for the gallery visitors.
10. Dining With The Sultan
Located in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this art exhibit features 250 works of art from public and private collectors in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. The art will showcase the full process of preparing food through Islamic art, with a focus on fine dining.
11. Antoine Vollon
Vollon was a 19th-century French artist who was well known for his still-life work. Some of his most popular artworks include Mound of Butter, Still Life with Cheese, Still Life with Onions, and Fruit and a Wineglass.
12. Balanced Diet
This brutalist-inspired art exhibit was created by Paola A. Sanchez Ariza. She created six block-like forms based on ingredients of different comfort recipes, but with an intense exterior. The art is meant to represent a combination of belonging, function, and the association of diet culture.
13. Fluid Table
Fluid Table is a group of individuals who use food as an artistic medium, exploring ceramics, fabrics, photography, sound, and performance art. They also have an art installation which features a room full of red yarn, representative of the human nervous system, hanging various food items and utensils around it.
14. Grounding
Grounding is an art installation that features a common European protest method of the same name. When governments undervalue the labor of farmers, the farmers will often pour several tonnes of carrots or potatoes in front of city buildings or main roads. This not only disrupts the city flow, but is also a visual representation of the work farmers do for our communities.
15. Giuseppe Arcimboldo
This Italian painter lived in the 16th century and was well-known for his paintings that use a variety of foods, flowers, fish, and books to make human heads, animals, or landscapes. Some of his most popular paintings include Vertumnus, The Librarian, and Summer.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo on Wikimedia
16. Wayne Thiebaud
This American painter was well-loved for his beautiful works of common items. Most of his work originated in the 50s and 60s, and featured brightly-colored copies of pies, cakes, pastries, ice creams, and hot dogs, as well as others. He’s considered one of the most well-recognized artists in the United States.
17. Insulin
This art installation features 1000 kg of barley that is being constantly sucked up and spit out of two agricultural machines in an endless loop. It’s meant to represent our metabolic system and how our body controls blood glucose levels.
18. Pindakaasvloer
This art installation comes from Dutch artist Wim T. Schippers, back in 1962. Essentially, Schippers covered a large stretch of floor with a thin layer of peanut butter, and it was meant to inspire folks to have fun with the popular spread.
19. A Convention of Tiny Movements
Created by artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, this art installation features bags of potato chips that have surveillance tools inside them. The chips had audio, video, and other measuring devices, and were meant to represent the world of tech we are mercilessly barreling towards.
20. Andy Warhol
We have to put the man himself on this list. Andy Warhol was a pioneer of the pop art movement, exploring the themes of artistry, advertising, and celebrity culture. His iconic silkscreen paintings of Campbell’s soup cans are still one of his most recognized works to date.
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