Abstract
Eating human cheese, as troubling as it seems, is possible to some extent. But what does eating human cheese imply? What sort of reactions does this trigger? But most importantly, how does this relate to the ethics of hospitality? In this paper, I explore eating as an act that comprises the physical and routine act of ingesting food but also, as Kelly Oliver emphasises, an ethico-political and psychological assimilation of the other by means of the “metonymical interiorisation of symbols, language or social codes”. I focus on Miriam Simun’s installation ‘The Lady Cheese Shop (2011)’ and the gesture of hospitality and the maternal; but most importantly, because this art installation shows the possibility of eating the body of an(other) human—if considering that the fluids produced by a person are part of its corporeality. My analysis comprises contemporary feminist frameworks that focus on the materiality of the body as a means to reframe the maternal body in continual relationships with others to consider eating the body of the other as a gesture of hospitality. The artist, in similarity to contemporary practices of chefs and mothers who create dairy-related products like cheese or ice cream, used breast milk to create different cheeses and which were presented to the public in a series of tasting sessions that also pinpoints gender inequality in the hospitality industry.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Cheese, Hospitality, Mother, Art, Culture, Breastfeeding
