Art and Food
December 2004, Tate Modern
This activity looks at works of art that involve food. Loads of modern and contemporary artists have used food in their work. From the painted still lives of Pierre Bonnard to the work of Sam Taylor-Wood, food has stood for - among other things - the cycle of life and death. Recently, contemporary artists have started to use food as a way of prompting our memories and allowing us to make mental associations.
We had a giant shared meal with food from all over the world. While we were eating we drew our conversations, and listened to artists who talked about why they worked with food and showed us examples of their work. Using food as inspiration, we wrote stories about our favourite foods and illustrated them, or told stories about our experiences with food. We also made bread sculptures by squashing bread into different shapes; then we put the sculptures outside to feed the birds.
Top tips!
- Make sure you get permission to play with your food and go outside before you start the activity!
- Make bread sculptures by squashing pieces of bread to make different shapes. Put bread sculptures outside for the birds! Think about what birds normally eat... what do you think they would rather eat? Maybe they would like a restaurant to eat at!
- Write a story about food and illustrate it or tell it to your friends. Think about why you like that food, who made it for you first, where you ate it and what it felt like. Try to get this across in your drawing and story.
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