The ‘Harvest’ exhibition is a celebration of food in art. With over 150 works from the Gallery’s Collection, ‘Harvest’ includes magnificent still lifes from the seventeenth century to today, contemporary photography, bold video works, and dramatic large-scale installations, with major new acquisitions of works by Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno.
Northern European still-life paintings of the seventeenth century evoked colonial prosperity through depicting food, flowers and spices from Africa, Asia and the Americas. Contemporary artists continue to explore the global trade in food. ‘Harvest’ will consider how globalisation makes available emblematic regional specialities from around the world. Beyond the stories of what the colonial period brought to Europe, this exhibition will also touch on food moving from north to south, and the impact that this has had on food production in communities, as well as the alternative modes of production often developed from local knowledges. The labour involved in the production and distribution of what we eat is another important area of consideration for contemporary artists – from rice farmer to gleaner, and factory worker to the housewife. A discussion of labour also counterpoints the question of the status derived from food; the exhibition will explore the role of food as a symbol of prestige – whether through exclusivity or sheer excess.
Image: Superflex, Denmark est.1993 / Flooded McDonalds (still) 2009
