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Food in art : from prehistory to the Renaissance

From ancient Rome to early modern Europe, the relationship between humans and food has been portrayed in artworks for thousands of years. From farming, cooking and feasting scenes depicted in the Middle Ages in books of hours to the fish and fruit of ancient frescoes and mosaics, Food in Art gives fresh insights into how food items were cultivated, hunted, trapped, stored, traded, prepared and served throughout the ages. In this richly illustrated book, leading food historian Gillian Riley demonstrates how works of art can provide us with detailed information about the preparation and preservation of food that is missing from the history books. Artists of all periods and in all places have portrayed the tools and environments of the gastronomic world - of the drying, salting or smoking of meat, fish or vegetables, for example - and the enjoyment of eating, from the simplest peasant meals to the grandest banquets. These works allow us, as twenty-first-century viewers, to appreciate the colours, imagine the smells and salivate over the recipes of the foods, kitchens and dishes of the past.The book also explores the many links between food and myth, religion and legend in an array of artworks: is our perception of fruit in Christian art skewed by their symbolic meaning? Were the golden apples of the Hesperides indeed apples, or were they quinces or oranges? Covering everything from ancient wall paintings and medieval illuminated manuscripts to stained glass and funerary monuments, Food in Art explores these questions and many more in this aesthetically pleasing and highly readable volume.

Experimental eating

Profiling a range of culinary pioneers working across the fields of art, science, theatre, catering and design, Experimental Eating demonstrates how current creative collaborations are pushing the boundaries of how we understand, experience and relate to food and the rituals of dining. The book encompasses unusual and cutting-edge foods, radical dining events, "kitchen laboratory" experiments, food sculptures and other documentation of the transient moments that make up this field of experimentation. A selection of short essays situate these contemporary practices alongside various historical and cultural contexts, including: a history of food in modern and contemporary art, such as Gordon Matta-Clarke's FOOD cafe, Rikrit Tiravanija's FREE and Pad Thai events, and Grizedale Arts and Yangjiany Group's makeshift cafe for Frieze Projects 2012; a study of the connections between dining, theatre and ritual; and a survey of recent research in science and technology, and how this may impact on how we make, eat and perceive food.

Food

As the slow food movement meets fast food nation and eating locally collides with on-demand arugula, our food habits are shifting: writers and artists examine and imagine these changes, from the idea of a farm in a skyscraper to a map of fruit that falls on public property, from the genealogy of an organic bento box to a tale of chop suey and egg rolls.Food is essential to our sense of place and our sense of self, but today - as fast food nation meets the slow food movement and eating locally collides with on-demand arugula - our food habits are shifting. "Food" examines and imagines these changes, with projects by writers and artists that explore the cultural and emotional resonance of food, from the "everyday Dada" of mashed potatoes and Jell-O to the rocket science of food eaten by astronauts in space.In "Food", an artist photographs everything he ate in 2006 (and some things he didn't eat, including "Food I Left in the Fridge Too Long") and finds the results both "seductive and repulsive"; a writer describes the global agro-assembly line that produces an organic bento box for Japanese commuters containing rice and vegetables from California, pork from Mexico, and salmon from Alaska; a short story writer offers an eight-page graphic novel, Eating in Cafeterias; a landscape architect compares a commercial orange with an organic apple using visualized data; an award-winning New York City food writer tells a postmodern tale about small-town Chinese-American cuisine (featuring chop suey, egg rolls, and flaming lava cocktails); an expert explains the principles of urban food sustainability. Other projects include a map of the free food from fruit trees on public land in a Los Angeles neighborhood, a visionary plan for farms in skyscrapers, and a surprising report on food security. The essays, artwork, and stories in "Food" offer readers a full menu of intellectual nourishment and aesthetic delight.

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