Ornamental Cookery: An Intimate Look at Taste
Svava Tergesen: Ornamental Cookery, a new installation in the stunning upstairs gallery of the Audain Art Museum (AAM), is a feast for the eyes that’s elegant, tasty-looking, and thought-provoking. It draws the viewer close with hunger and curiosity, then asks hard questions about beauty, manipulation, femininity, and expectations. I took in the exhibition just before lunch, and I must admit, after the tour, I side-eyed my sandwich before I ate it.
Photographer, food sculptor, and visionary Svava Tergesen is an emerging Vancouver-based artist whose work turns the mundane into the surreal. Her incredible food creations start with arranging, cutting, weaving, and intentionally setting food in striking ways, sometimes reminiscent of fabrics such as quilts, lace, and knitwear. The sculptures are then photographed and mixed with collage, layered, and spliced. The vintage colours and vibe of the photos harken back to a 1950s-style Good Housekeeping magazine, and the compositions imagine new lives for everyday domestic objects.
The details in Tergesen's pieces are astonishing and also somewhat creepy. We are constantly reminded that food, although glamourized, rots, decays, and goes away. “It's all quite ephemeral,” said Feaver. In one piece, a chunk of Arctic char skin is grafted onto an apple shaped like a flower. In another, a delicate red rose is overlaid with an intricate lace-work pattern made of chorizo and various pieces of meat. From afar, the photo looks stylish and elegant. However, up close, the viewer not only questions their judgment, but they might also make other plans for lunch.
The exhibition, on display until June 11, was organized by Capture Photography Festival and the AAM. A featured exhibition for the 2023 festival, it was curated by the festival’s executive director, Emily Lee Wall.
Visit audainartmuseum.com/exhibitions for more information.