Fourteenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

There are various terms used in different contexts to describe participatory artmaking, some of which include relational aesthetics, socially-engaged art, dialogical art, research-creation, new genre public art, and community-engaged art. There is a gap in scholarly and arts-specific literature at the intersection of food and participatory art, despite that there are innumerable participatory art projects that incorporate food and eating. Existing scholarship within food & participatory art practices tends to deal with distinct subfields or epistemological approaches. Our paper uses food and eating in and as participatory art as a site to analyse, think-through, and map out relationships and contradictions between various social art practices. We comment on and share our own artistic research, as well as work by other artists globally, to consider the many different and intersecting ways artists are exploring the potential of sharing and preparing food in participatory art.