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Art - Fetish, Fantasy, Fiction, Food

27/1/2019

STORIES - Free Range

F20 – Free Range 2018 archival ink jet on cotton rag
Free Range
The exact nature of what constitutes free range is regularly put to “permanent” rest by advertisers, public relations media releases, articles in the media and by government legislation.
Cage free, pasture fed, free range, pasture raised, grass fed, organic.
Like the zombie, free range rises from the dead and ravages your brain.

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Art - Fetish, Fantasy, Fiction, Food

17/1/2019

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STORIES - Omega Fatty Acids

F22 – Invasion of the Omega Fatty Acids 2018 archival inkjet ink on cotton rag

Omega Fatty acids
Considering the ubiquity of Omega Fatty Acids in health and nutritional advice published and the multibillion dollar natural health products industry is hard to believe, that while it is only just shy of 90 years since Omega Fatty acids were found to be essential for our health, it is not much more than 20 years ago that the World Health Organisation decreed that “infant formula should have a fatty acid distribution more like human milk, which contained other long-chain, polyunsaturated fatty acids as well.” and only on September 8, 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave "qualified health claim" status to EPA and DHA omega−3 fatty acids.
At some time between the announcements by WHO and the FDA the invasion started, a salvo of salmon followed by a barrage of nuts, tried to wipe out the hamburger and pie. The way has been greased with fish oil and now Krill (which really should be left for the whales) and support from food manufacturers adding omega 3 to their products. There has been minor sniping from Hemp seed and foraged purslane. Omega levels in people have risen world wide.
But there is some resistance, as reported by the Independant in July 2018 : “A review by the internationally recognised Cochrane Library evaluating 79 of the best conducted experiments on omega-3 supplements’ health benefits found they make “little or no difference” to premature deaths.
Professor Tim Chico, an expert in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Sheffield said similar issues had been seen with vitamins where excessive supplement use to replicate the benefits of a healthy diet was actually harmful.”
However even as I write this, today 13 November 2108, there is a counter attack and Reuters report that: “A large U.S. study designed to gauge the health benefits of vitamin D and fish oil supplements concludes that the omega-3 oil can dramatically reduce the odds of a heart attack while vitamin D’s benefits seem to come from lowering the risk of death from cancer”.

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Art - Fetish, Fantasy, Fiction, Food

1/1/2019

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STORIES - Aphrodisiac

F18 – Appetite for Love 2018 archival ink jet on cotton rag paper
Aphrodisiac
Is any food an aphrodisiac ? I think the circumstances and the company can add a frisson of interest to a repast. There have been two meals cooked for me that are inextricably associated with seduction, neither involved food that is traditionally identified as being an aphrodisiac. The first involved chicken livers, sauteed, with a cream and brandy dressing, served with a green salad and a bottle of red. I can recall this meal because it was the first visit to my future partner’s rented basement flat in Paddington and it was the first and last meal cooked for me during the next 40 years, after this I cooked every meal at home.
The second was a very simple meal of fillet steak with steamed broccoli and carrots, I can remember it as being absolutely delicious and still enjoy cooking a similar meal at home. But the original was cooked on the occasion of the first visit to a lover’s home, we both knew that this was definitely foreplay, the glances and small talk during preparation and cooking, the pouring of red wine, setting the table and tabling the meal, the eating of which was never finished.
The “Appetite for Love” print started out after reading a media report of a survey in New York that “explored the role that food plays in love. While it confirms that “the way to a man's heart is through his stomach” was true for a slight majority of men, it also indicated that for nearly half of the women surveyed, food is the way to their own hearts. The vast majority agreed that food plays an incredibly important role in their relationships.” I also had in mind such sayings as cooking is love, certain foods are aphrodisiacs and that the ultimate food of love is the first food you receive from your mother.

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Art - Fetish, Fantasy, Fiction, Food

31/12/2018

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STORIES - Meat

F18 Meat 2015 paper collage

Meat
It is difficult to quite work out why people are so discerning about what meat they will eat or not. If you can stand back from a subject and try to eliminate social and other conditioning, when it comes down to scales of weird looking creatures, there is not much difference between a Lobster or a Tarantula. Why are the former deemed a luxury edible for millions and the latter reviled by those same millions and only eaten by a few specific groups of humanity. The story is similar for people of mostly British heritage, out of a huge range of animal life why only cows, goats and sheep and not donkeys, horses and zebra. The good thing about this of course is that, at least while travelling, there are some things that really are regional specialities. Guinea pig anyone?

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Art - Fetish, Fantasy, Fiction, Food

25/12/2018

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STORIES - Checking for Ripeness

F7 – Checking for ripeness – squeeze gently 2018 archival ink jet on cotton rag

Checking for ripeness
When I travel I want to experience the destination through the art and culture, which of course includes food and wine. Not only does this mean regional specialities it also means going to the local markets and supermarkets, not specifically to purchase anything, but to imbibe the atmosphere, the looks , the smells, to imagine which staples I would be buying in this supermarket if I lived here and which fresh produce I would be purchasing in the markets. To become familiar with the names, to acquire some of the confidence of an (almost) local, to think, yes, if I were stranded here I would not be totally lost. In other words, I want to eat and drink locally, such as in Australia I do not want to drink French wine in the Hunter Valley, or in Barcelona I want to drink locally, not buy Jacobs Creek in a Barcelona supermarket because it is the only brand I recognise.
I also expect that the regional guides published for tourists to be accurate and informative, to give a sense of what to do and see, what to eat and drink. Which is why I found a promotion for a South Australian wine region both outrageous and hysterically funny. The image depicted a man reclining on a picnic rug in a bucolic setting, beside him an ice bucket with a bottle of wine and a pineapple.
I will list just some of the incongruities: Pineapples are really not a standard crop grown in any South Australian wine region. It is almost impossible to find Pineapples and a compatible wine in any list of food and wine matches. Since there are no glasses or table ware depicted, I must assume that the pineapple will be ripped apart with the bare hands and the wine drunk from the bottle. Judging by the bulge, it would only be fair to ask if there is another pineapple in the gentleman’s pocket or he was really pleased to see the photographer ?
My reaction to this is indicated by the figure to the right, laughing and holding a mask of the existential scream from Edvard Munch’s painting. The collage has been built around innuendo in the common phrase used in food writings “To check for ripeness, squeeze gently” and have added to the mix beetroot and pumpkin, vegetables that it would be futile to squeeze. To complete the satire, an indigenous person from South America, the original home of the pineapple, now looks on.

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Art - Fetish, Fantasy, Fiction, Food

STORIES - Free Range

Art - Fetish, Fantasy, Fiction, Food

STORIES - Omega Fatty Acids

Art - Fetish, Fantasy, Fiction, Food

STORIES - Aphrodisiac

Art - Fetish, Fantasy, Fiction, Food

STORIES - Meat

Art - Fetish, Fantasy, Fiction, Food

STORIES - Checking for Ripeness

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