Baked Goods Installation

Installation Shots of Baked Goods, University City Arts League, Philadelphia, Pa November 2016:

From left: Polina Barskaya, Jennifer Coates, Mike Geno, Owen Ahern-Browning, Polina Barskaya

 From left: Jennifer Coates, Mike Geno, Holly Coulis, Trina Turturici

 From left: Emilie Selden, John Bokor, Mike Geno, Polina Barskaya, Tiffany Tate

Owen Ahearn-Browning, Jimmy Bellew

Jimmy Bellew

Joshua Marsh

On Wall: Jennifer Coates, Owen Ahearn-Browning, Sculpture: CJ Stahl

 Mickayel Thurin                         On wall: Trina Turturici Sculpture: Brandon Spicer-Crawley

 from left: Jimmy Bellew, Emilie Selden, John Bokor, Mike Geno, Polina Barskaya

 Mike Geno, Polina Barskaya

 from left: Polina Barskaya, Jennifer Coates, Mike Geno

Opening Night October 21st 2016:

           My Guston cake!                                       And our eating experiment for visitors:  

'17th cuisine commonly called for a plethora of options on the table, up to 25 dishes per course. However, you were not supposed to eat every plate but rather choose two or three as a personalized meal that fit with your 'constitution' and kept you healthy.

For example a melancholic temperament was believed to be cold and dry and required a diet of hot and wet foods such as strong red wine and lamb to maintain balance. A choleric temperament was thought to be hot and dry which meant a cold and wet diet was best, melons and cucumbers.'

We brought in and made foods that were present in the visual work so people could eat what they were seeing.  Strawberry cake, Philly soft pretzels, hard cheese, waffles, rigatoni pie, apple jacks and the list goes on.  The opening was a full sensory experience.  

We also had two performance installations, one by Tiffany Tate which offered visitors herbal tea hand collected on a residency in the mid-west. The other was by Marie Manski who stood in the gallery making 'Sarraf Splits'.  She grew up in Latrobe, PA, the town where banana splits were invented.  For this work she made her own take on the dessert, infusing her family's Syrian heritage, particularly her grandfather, Sarraf, of spices and bold flavor into the project in an attempt to raise awareness of place, identity and race as they relate to foods.  

 The beginning of the night                                      Marie Manski making 'Sarraf Splits'

Overall it was a beautiful night.  The space was packed with a couple hundred people making it out to celebrate.  It felt really good to see an idea that had been floating around in my head for years take the shape it did and see the hours of work we put in paid off.  People from all over the community came and met and it felt like what great meals and good shows do, bring people into a space where conversations and ideas that wouldn't otherwise happen, might.

Co-curators! Me and Adam Lovitz -- such a good collaboration.  Felt like the universe gave back for all the times I had a shitty group project as a kid in school.  The show wouldn't have gotten to the place it did without the ability to bounce ideas off each other (and that fabulous hair).