Reception History, Archival Research, and Embodied Experiences: Approaches to Food-Based Relational Artworks Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

Contemporary artists Michael Rakowitz (American, b. 1973) and Rirkrit Tiravanija (Thai, b. 1961) have produced artworks in which the making and serving of food are the means of establishing relational experiences with their audiences. “It is not what you see that is important, but what takes place between people,” says Tiravanija. Both artists utilize the preparation of food, related to their own identities, with the expressed goal of starting conversation, but how does a historian go about examining the effects and meanings of such food-based relational art? The ephemeral nature of culinary consumption produces artworks that embrace impermanence and do not exist as traditional “art objects,” thus posing challenges to researchers.

This paper will examine the works of Rakowitz and Tiravanija, with a focus on their artworks Enemy Kitchen (2003) and Untitled (pad Thai) (1990), respectively, through three different methods of evaluation. The first, an analysis of secondary literature, provides a broad view of responses to and opinions about both artworks. The second, used to examine Enemy Kitchen, will be archival research, presenting its own challenges in terms of accessibility, but allowing for a deep dive into the realities of exhibition design for fleeting experiences. The third and final method of analysis, used to examine Untitled (pad thai) will be experiential engagement with the 2024 MoMA PS1 re-performance of the artwork itself. This paper examines the distinct types of knowledge that may be gained from secondary literature, archival research, and embodied experience, exploring how each method responds to the problems posed to the art historian by food-based participatory art. This thesis then reintegrates these three modes of analysis to pull out pertinent themes and further questions for exploration, including how artistic labor is perceived and what these artworks demand, the ways in which cultural visibility is attended to or not in artistic institutions and published texts, and the importance of expanding notions of community beyond just the unique artist-audience interactions that are emphasized in initial conceptualization of relational aesthetics. 

Table of Contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................1

Foundations of Artistic Practice ..................................................................2

Relationality and Reciprocity ......................................................................6

Chapter 1: Grain of Salt: Research Through Published Textual Accounts ..........................13

An Artist is Worth a Thousand Words: Personality, Perfection, and Theatricality ......14

Relationality and Generosity in Art Writing ...........................................................18

Food, Art History, and Identity in Conversation .....................................................19

Chapter 2: Spill the Beans: Mining Archival Records as Research .................................... 26

Documenting Performance in Theory and Practice .................................................27

Memory Limits: Accessibility and What Ends Up in the Archive ...............................30

Peek Behind the Curtain: Labor and Learning from the Archive ...............................32

Chapter 3: Food for Thought: Experiencing Artworks as Primary Research .......................39

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................52

Bibliography ................................................................................................................55 

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Art History
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Art History
Keyword	Relational Aesthetics Archival Research Food-Based Artwork Ephemeral Art
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Dr. Lisa Lee, Emory University
Committee Members	Dr. Jenny Wang-Medina, Emory University Dr. Christina Crawford, Emory University

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