Sur la table.
Published by Sid August 22nd, 2006 in art, city, entertainment, life, cooking. Tags: No Tags.Went to view Feeding Desire on a whim today at the Cooper-Hewitt. Fascinating on so many levels. Even if you have no interest whatsoever in the dining ritual, the examples collected for the exhibit showed such an incredible range of artistry, innovation.
Did you know it was common well into the seventeenth century for even the wealthy to carry their own eating utensils around, because hosts rarely provided them? The extensive marital silver service for eight? Fairly recent development.
I was especially impressed, for some reason, by the folding sets, ingenious little things made up of hinged handle, attached fork head, and spoon bowl that contained a mount on back that would allow it to be fit onto the fork tines for conversion from fork to spoon. FLATWARE TRANSFORMERS, PEOPLE. Eighteenth century. They were hot shit, man.
I stood transfixed, watching a video of a silversmith hammering out individual forks and spoons. Of course, they are rarely hand-made these days.
Some of the pieces were stunning in their artistry–ivory carved handles, precious metals and semiprecious stones, intricate enameling, incredibly detailed forms. Some were simply stunning in their failure: interesting to look at, but so lacking in ergonomic consideration, unweildy, even ridiculous. I suppose those pieces, all of them recent, of course, were pure art. Noteworthy, but non-functional, and as such, useless.
It was a four room exhibition, small rooms, no less, but I think I was there nearly two hours. I left in awe of what some people are capable envisioning for the most banal items.
Someday, god, finances, and artist willing, I’ll get my hands on anything by Boris Bally, a Rhode Island based artist.
I was also impressed by a number of young designers whose works are being (sorta) mass-produced by BOSA. I’d like to find out where to get such things here, but it seems to be impossible to get outside Italy. Damn those Europeans and their hoarding of good design.
Anyway, if you’re interested in the exhibit, go, soon. It ends in a few weeks.
Foodie art exhibitions are great! A couple of years back, I went to this tiny little museum in Haarlem ( … yes, 2 As, it’s in the Netherlands, not Manhattan). They were showing several 17th C paintings that featured food, dishes or cutlery. In front of each painting, they had the actual relics from that time period. You know, stuff that was actually in the painting. Sometimes it was a beautiful, hand-blown glass. Sometimes it was a dish. But, you get the point. Even for non-foodies like myself, it was beautiful!
More than meets the eye indeed!