Food & the Public Sphere

Food & The Public Sphere is a survey of socially engaging public works, sculpture and objects by internationally acclaimed artists Lucy + Jorge Orta.

The partnership's food recycling projects, mass open- air meals, gleaned gastronomic dinners, and mobile soup kitchens have pioneered a renewed interest in the politics of food. Communities all over the world-- working from the scale of global food networks down to local methods for farming and cooking--are seeking ways to make the food system better serve the needs of people and the planet. After decades of successful food production in massive quantities, producing cheap produce, policymakers and citizens are recognising the environmental and social cost of this process. The over-industrialisation of food has forced small farms to surrender to agribusiness, reduced biodiversity in favour of monoculture crops, and assaulted communities with debilitating chronic diseases. Lucy + Jorge Orta's work in this volume bring these pressing issues home.

The publication will bring together, for the first time, the culmination of twenty-years dedication to the power of art and food. A compelling image-led, large-format design, will gives a feel for the breath-taking and highly engaging work the Orta duo create. Also featuring 'scrapbook-like' photos of the genesis and installation of the works as they progress: from the issues at stake, to the studio, to the final locations of representation.

Food & The Public Sphere is the fourth title to be published on the work of Lucy and Jorge Orta by Black Dog Publishing. The previous titles are Light Work: Lucy + Jorge Orta, Lucy + Jorge Orta Pattern Book: An Introduction to Collaborative Practices and Mapping the Invisible: EU-Roma Gypsies.

Lucy + Jorge Orta are a collaborative practice that focuses on social and ecological issues, employing a diversity of media - drawing, sculpture, installation, couture, painting, silkscreen, photography, video, light and performance - to realise major bodies of work. Amongst their most emblematic series are: Refuge Wear / Body Architecture: portable minimum habitats bridging architecture and dress; HortiRecycling / 70 x 7 The Meal: the local and global food chain and the ritual of community dining; Nexus Architecture: alternative modes of establishing the social link; The Gift: a metaphor for the heart and the biomedical ethics of organ donation; OrtaWater / Clouds: water scarcity and the problems arising from pollution and corporate control; Antarctica: international human rights and freer international migration; and Amazonia: the value of the natural environment to our daily lives and to our survival. n recognition of their contribution to sustainability, the artists received the Green Leaf Award in 2007 for artistic excellence with an environmental message, presented by the United Nations Environment Programme in partnership with the Natural World Museum at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway. In 2013 the artists’ monumental Meteoros - Clouds was selected for the inaugural Terrace Wires public art commission for St Pancras International in London.

Since 2011 Nigel Prince is executive director of Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery. His previous collaborations include, curator of the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham (UK), working with the Power Plant in Toronto (Canada), in addition to the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (Germany); the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam (Holland); the Venice Biennale; and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. He has launched many Canadian artists on the international scene, including Marcel Dzama, Steven Sherer, and Roy Arden.

Ellen Lupton is curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. An author of numerous books and articles on design, she is a public-minded critic, frequent lecturer, and AIGA Gold Medalist.