10 'stations' are set up around the venue, each with a different theme (eg. Safari - rye•chunky relish•cheese•butter [optional]). Bread maker, electric breadknife, camping table, tablecloth, teatowel, butter dish, butter, chopping board, butter knife, topping, paper serviettes. The bread makers are synchronised, baking their loaves, and the timer on each bread maker counts down the synchronised minutes until the loaves are ready. As the night draws to 11pm the smell of bread fills the venue. 10 apron-clad assistants march out of the kitchen area in a line carrying their respective toppings and file out to their respective stations. At 11pm as The Bank Holidays finish their set, the apron-wearers throw fistfuls of flour into the air and pull out their bread from the ovens, shaking the loaves out onto boards and slicing them up with the electric knives. Crowds are gathered around each station, eagerly, hungrily, watching as the first slice is spread with the topping and eaten by the station-man, immediately after which every last crumb (literally) is devoured by the audience.
The No Knead project (a 'live installation') had been a long time in the making. Working with food was something the Inter Collective had been interested in for a while, and so when the Love Is My Velocity Cookbook II was announced, we figured it was the perfect opportunity. The major part of the work happened at the launch of the cookbook, which took place on a Friday night at the Hellenic Centre in Northbridge, with bands playing etc etc. We also had a diagram/drawing relating to the installation in the cookbook, and the installation continued (on a much smaller, single-station scale) after the launch every day at the cookbook exhibition.
The premise for the piece was to provide a multi-sensory art experience, a new experience of the everyday: integrating the ‘art’ within the social setting of the ‘music event’ so that the experience and enjoyment of both are not separate but collapse into each other. One of the major factors determining the success of the piece was that people interacted. We had been hungry for a direct and complete interaction with our work since the laneway project and so in this project, a lot of thought went into how best to make this happen.
Art which demands more from people than simply looking at it on a wall; art which dignifies the viewer/participant to play a part in it, activate the artwork, help it to exist. Categorically speaking, the piece begins from the initial kneading of the yeast, flour and water, and does not end until the bread is metabolically processed and digested.
From our experience, people can find this kind of art somewhat intimidating, particularly when it's interrupting a norm they are used to and comfortable within, or asking them to take part or be involved. It can be a really daunting experience for audiences, and if interaction doesn't really occur, we are left with a mutual feeling of misunderstanding and confusion... which is completely opposite to everything we aim for in our practice.
So, we went about building this project by drawing on the simplest and most familiar elements we could think of. Asking nothing of the audience but that they eat the bread. Bread, the most basic of food items. We took care to make the work visually engaging, so that every detail was clearly intentional, and were conscious not to force people into participating but rather provide them with a set of circumstances so simple and natural that they would take that initiative to be a part of the artwork themselves.
Sometimes it's not always the easiest route to be passive and wait for people to make that action, but it's always the most rewarding, and provides the truest, most genuine interaction.
The premise for the piece was to provide a multi-sensory art experience, a new experience of the everyday: integrating the ‘art’ within the social setting of the ‘music event’ so that the experience and enjoyment of both are not separate but collapse into each other. One of the major factors determining the success of the piece was that people interacted. We had been hungry for a direct and complete interaction with our work since the laneway project and so in this project, a lot of thought went into how best to make this happen.
Art which demands more from people than simply looking at it on a wall; art which dignifies the viewer/participant to play a part in it, activate the artwork, help it to exist. Categorically speaking, the piece begins from the initial kneading of the yeast, flour and water, and does not end until the bread is metabolically processed and digested.
From our experience, people can find this kind of art somewhat intimidating, particularly when it's interrupting a norm they are used to and comfortable within, or asking them to take part or be involved. It can be a really daunting experience for audiences, and if interaction doesn't really occur, we are left with a mutual feeling of misunderstanding and confusion... which is completely opposite to everything we aim for in our practice.
So, we went about building this project by drawing on the simplest and most familiar elements we could think of. Asking nothing of the audience but that they eat the bread. Bread, the most basic of food items. We took care to make the work visually engaging, so that every detail was clearly intentional, and were conscious not to force people into participating but rather provide them with a set of circumstances so simple and natural that they would take that initiative to be a part of the artwork themselves.
Sometimes it's not always the easiest route to be passive and wait for people to make that action, but it's always the most rewarding, and provides the truest, most genuine interaction.
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