EVENT: Ruminant Painting after Sargent, an installation in the SAM Rental Sales Gallery window (1334 First Ave), is a copy of John Singer Sargent's Head of Aesop after Velasquez painted in food (shown above). Through March 25.
What is the connection between Sargent and food? "There isn't really a direct relationship. I had this idea that I wanted to explore putting one of these food pieces I've been doing into a window to see what would happen to it over time--how it would change and transform in that kind of environment. And I thought the Rental Sales window would be the perfect venue for it, and I was thinking, 'How could I tie in the museum, kind of slide into the museum?' I did talk with Trevor [Fairbrother] and told him my idea, and he thought it was great. It's kind of a way of pulling the museum out to the road, pulling Sargent into a realm of play, in a realm of accessibility for people who wouldn't otherwise get to it, or want to."
What kinds of foods did you use? "That's classified. The people who walk by the installation, if they can guess three of the foods, I'll send them a prize in the spirit of the piece."
How is it holding up? "It's been up for a couple of weeks, and it looks great. I was surprised--I had some hesitations, because I thought, 'I'll put the thing in the window and the first thing that's going to go will be all the colors.' But it's retained a lot of color. What I've found is there's a lot of fluid that's dropped along the bottom. And I've heard that it's leaking."
Does it make you hungry when painting in food? Or do you lose your appetite? "You know, to have all these different kinds of foods around is really stinky. It's not very appealing. There are combinations of things you would never eat. To smell them and work with them and slop them around... it's a lot different from turpentine."
