BEST IF USED BY

EXCERPT:

“A rock-candy encrusted swing gently sways from the rafters, glinting with frosted pinks, like a suspended sunset melting into a swollen puddle below. Rows of Buddha figurines gaze out in a gradient of cooked sugar. Their crisp features and folded fabrics slowly glaze over, a pool at their feet. Their heads begin to give way to gravity and bow forward with gentle elegance. Iconic logos emblazoned across the surface of a banana begin to oxidize, spreading swaths of brown decay across no-longer-recognizable symbols, as if the branding itself affected the fruit’s demise.

Hides of citrus fruit take on cubic forms as they swing in the balance of preserved time, their tangerine pores relaying a tactile familiarity. A half-eaten sandwich is cast, for all time, molten gold oozing from a vitreous-glass enameled crust. Crocheted fibers cloak dinner settings, forging a suspended division between ourselves and the objects we consume.

Crafted objects have complex life histories. The skilled transformation of raw materials, from their inception to their ultimate decay, into products that can be appreciated, used, consumed, and broken down seems to play out on a universal scale. As social historian Asa Briggs remarks in his foundational text about material culture, “everything has its history as every person has his own biography.” Both crafted food and objects embody generations of tradition, specialized knowledge, artistry, and attention to process and material. BEST IF USED BY questions why we conceive of these worlds separately and enacts the implications of bringing temporal objects into the gallery space.

The fields of craft and artisanal food are simultaneously experiencing revitalization amid a renewed embrace of handmade culture. “Craft” is often invoked in culinary and consumer contexts to denote quality and small-batch production. In The Craft Reader, Glenn Adamson states, “the ephemeral arts of cuisine are an understudied part of craft history and theory...Just as with ‘indigenous’ craft objects, authenticity and regional specificity are crucial to the ways that food is made, distributed and sold.” The works in BEST IF USED BY investigate how these worlds are entangled, which is often overlooked in scholarship.

BEST IF USED BY was designed to inspire a rich sensory experience, from the lingering scents of sugar and citrus to the transforming hues and textures of the pieces. The layout of the show is organized by rate of temporality, while the installation elements and vitrine cases are meant to evoke the gem-case feel of an artisanal food purveyor. One half of the exhibition displays objects that freeze moments in time or slow the rate of decay, while the other displays ephemeral works that harness the instability of their material and, ultimately, expire. The tactility of the book-object you hold in your hands is redolent of the wrappings of a fine cut of meat or cheese, hand selected at the counter of a food market. Screen printed with condiments, each book cover contains the lingering smell of barbeque sauce, mustard, ketchup, or balsamic, as though the words’ flavors were seeping from the interior. That the organic printing mediums used may not be archival further embodies the show’s conceptual basis.”