Henry David Thoreau : Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree (1862)

"It is remarkable how closely the history of the Apple-tree is connected with that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of the Rosaceae, which includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and the Labiatae, or Mints, were introduced only a short time previous to the appearance of man on the globe."

"They must be eaten in the fields, when your system is all aglow with exercise, when the frosty weather nips your fingers, the wind rattles the bare boughs or rustles the few remaining leaves, and the jay is heard screaming around. What is sour in the house a bracing walk makes sweet. Some of these apples might be labelled, "To be eaten in the wind.""


"Thus the cows create their own shade and food; and the tree, its hour-glass being inverted, lives a second life, as it were."




Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree (1862)


THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE.
THE WILD APPLE.
THE CRAB.
HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS.
THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR.
THEIR BEAUTY.
THE NAMING OF THEM.
THE LAST GLEANING.
THE "FROZEN-THAWED" APPLE.

Read the full text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4066


Read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau

Erwin Wurm- Gilbert & George : "Drinking Sculptures"

Photo © Ottomura

Erwin Wurm's "Drinking Sculptures" (2011) at Middelheim Museum, Antwerp

See also Gilbert and George Drinking Sculptures:

Gilbert and George, a Drink

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/audio/2007/feb/15/gilbert..george.discuss.drinking.sculptures

Meat for robots (II) Venus flytrap replica

 

http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/6/4/046004/

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228356.100-robot-venus-flytraps-could-eat-bugs-for-fuel.html

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/botany/venus-flytrap3.htm


See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bender_%28Futurama%29
De la viande pour les robots dans des couleurs dans la bouche :
http://descouleursdanslabouche.blogspot.com/2011/02/de-la-viande-pour-des-robots.html

Robot pizzaiolo

Flying pizzas no more, turn your coins into dough in couple minutes.

Ben Kinmont

 
The dinner is organized around a six course menu. Recipes offered range from a tactile and perfumed Futurist dish to cheeses based on Sol Lewitt’s “Forms derived from a cube” (Nicolas Boulard's Specific Cheeses, 2009). Other recipes include a cucumber salad by Louise Bourgeois (1977), a steak tartare by Marcel Duchamp (1961), Basque Bass from Gordon Matta-Clark’s restaurant Food (1971), Clouds by Geoff Hendricks (1969), Toffee Pinecones by Salvatore Dali (1973), Fig Pervert by Philip Corner (1965), and two recipes from the first monograph on ice cream -- Emy’s L’Art de bien faire les glaces d’office, Paris: 1768.



Ben Kinmont (Born 1963 Burlington, Vermont, USA) is interested in interpersonal communication as a means of addressing the problems of contemporary society. His sculptures and actions attempt to establish a direct, personal relationship between the artist and the viewer, using the work as a mediator. If art is supposed to be an agency of intellectual and emotional challenge, then the artist concludes that the audience should also be addressed beyond the institutional frame of the gallery and the museum, and that contact should be more direct. Kinmont also runs a bookselling business specializing in 15th – early 19th century books about food and wine.


http://benkinmont.com/


More: http://www.kunstverein.us/
http://11.performa-arts.org/event/ben-kinmont-performa-premiere

Marina Abramovic

For Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s MOCA annual Gala, Marina Abramovic used people and pushed the limits of entertainment with performance art.

http://www.galleristny.com/2011/11/losing-our-appetites-marina-abramovics-moca-gala/#slide10


The making :

Source: http://www.rosebudcakes.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14559934@N04/archives/date-posted/2011/11/14/








Of course, Polemic:
 
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/750038/yvonne-rainer-denounces-marina-abramovics-planned-moca-gala-performance-as-grotesque

http://www.galleristny.com/2011/11/losing-our-appetites-marina-abramovics-moca-gala/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/10/marina-abramovic-moca-gala.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marina-Abramovic-Auditions/169733116452139



The letter from Yvonne Rainer to Jeffrey Deitch:

November 9, 2011
To Jeffrey Deitch:
I am writing to protest the “entertainment” about to be provided by Marina Abramovic at the upcoming donor gala at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It has come to my attention that a number of young people will be ensconced under the diners’ tables on lazy Susans and also be required to display their nude bodies under fake skeletons.
This description is reminiscent of “Salo,” Pasolini’s controversial film of 1975 that dealt with sadism and sexual abuse of a group of adolescents at the hands of a bunch of post-war fascists. Reluctant as I am to dignify Abramovic by mentioning Pasolini in the same breath, the latter at least had a socially credible justification in the cause of anti-fascism. Abramovic and MOCA have no such credibility, only a flimsy personal rationale about eye contact. Subjecting her performers to public humiliation at the hands of a bunch of frolicking donors is yet another example of the Museum’s callousness and greed and Ms Abramovic’s obliviousness to differences in context and to some of the implications of transposing her own powerful performances to the bodies of others. An exhibition is one thing — this is not a critique of Abramovic’s work in general — but titillation for wealthy diners as a means of raising money is another.
Ms Abramovic is so wedded to her original vision that she – and by extension, the Museum director and curators — doesn’t see the egregious associations for the performers, who, though willing, will be exploited nonetheless. Their desperate voluntarism says something about the generally exploitative conditions of the art world such that people are willing to become victims of a celebrity artist in the hopes of somehow breaking into the show biz themselves. And at sub-minimal wages for the performers, the event verges on economic exploitation and criminality.
This grotesque spectacle promises to be truly embarrassing. We the undersigned wish to express our dismay that an institution that we have supported can stoop to such degrading methods of fund raising. Can other institutions be far behind? Must we re-name MOCA “MODFR” or the Museum of Degenerate Fund Raising?
Sincerely,
Yvonne Rainer

 
FYI: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_Rainer)

In 1965, as a reaction to many of the previously stated feelings, Rainer created her "No Manifesto," which was a strategy formulated to demystify dance:

NO to spectacle.
No to virtuosity.
No to transformations and magic and make-believe.
No to the glamour and transcendency of the star image.
No to the heroic.
No to the anti-heroic.
No to trash imagery.
No to involvement of performer or spectator,
No to style.
No to camp.
No to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer.
No to eccentricity.
No to moving or being moved.

More:http://www.ubu.com/film/rainer.html




see also: 

http://descouleursdanslabouche.blogspot.com/2011/01/marina-abramovics-volcano-flambe.html

Jennifer Rubell

Jennifer Rubell Nut Cracker

source:
http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2011/09/jennifer_rubell_presents_nutcr.html
http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2010/11/food_artist_jennifer_rubell_lo.html
http://www.dallascontemporary.org/
http://jenniferrubell.com/index.php?sec=projects&details=35

Washing out your mouth with soap

Image courtesy of Stockbyte/Getty

Washing out mouth with soap is a form of physical punishment. It is most commonly administered to children for actions such as cursing, lying, or talking back. It is considered symbolic of cleansing out a dirty mouth but is used primarily because some people feel that the foul taste of soap is an effective deterrent to unacceptable behavior. It was a common method of punishment in the first half of the 20th century but has declined in popularity significantly since the 1960s. Historically, it has been practiced primarily in the United Kingdom, Australia and United States. Today it is a controversial practice, with some parents, child experts, and other persons who spend time around children practicing and/or advocating for it, others refusing the practice, and some even opposing its use by others. Opposition to this punishment has grown in recent decades as its use has declined.
from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washing_out_mouth_with_soap


For nice words coming out of your mouth, try this:
Boil 2.5 cups of water. Add in 1 teaspoon of fresh mint leaves, 1 teaspoon of rosemary leaves, ad 1 teaspoon of anise seeds. Let this boil for about 20 minutes. Once it is cooled, you've got your mouthwash!
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/homemade-natural-mouthwash.html



See also:
Bitter and sweet and behavior
http://descouleursdanslabouche.blogspot.com/2011/05/envy-and-bitterness-in-mouth-one-flavor.html


ALERT:
http://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2011/11/04/mouthwash-recalled-over-bacterial-contamination-fear.html

Breeding hybrid fruits

Making hybrids. Scary though interesting ideas.
Like the Pomato (Potato + Tomato) which roots and fruits are both growing common edible on the same tree.

Feeding tomatoes with the same food we eat (fish, meat, various other rootstocks) is an other interesting idea but brings up more SciFi memories.




The daughter of a strawberry & a pineapple:
the Pineberry



Source:

http://www.fruitsinfo.com/hybrid-fruits.php
http://www.theawl.com/2011/09/hybrid-fruit-will-kill-us-all
http://americanpomological.org/registrars.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904900904576552543026705926.html?mod=djemITP_h

Soft BLT sandwich scuplture by Claes Oldenburg

Curator Dana Miller narrates the assembling of Claes Oldenburg’s Giant BLT (Soft Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich).

Watch the video:
http://whitney.org/WatchAndListen/Artists?play_id=43

see also:
http://descouleursdanslabouche.blogspot.com/2011/07/earth-sandwich.html