Existing comment:
J.J. MCCRACKEN
Fruit for Geophages (Hunger), 2022 Slip-cast locally dug clay, vitrine
"Hunger,"
remastered 2022, with Ornette Hawkins
video, soundscape
Courtesy of the artist and Connersmith, Washington, DC
McCracken's work confronts the inequality in America's food system, where food is produced in great abundance and yet so many still go hungry. The film of McCracken's 2010 performance, shows her clay-drenched women eating multiple clay casts of fruits and vegetables to expressively demonstrate this disturbing contradiction. The artist plumbs the depths of hunger, of malnutrition, using geophagy (earth eating) to build an experiential work where consumption abounds but the "food" is devoid of nutritional value. The fragile clay artifacts that remain are presented here in a museum vitrine to elevate them as sacred objects, imbuing them with historical meaning and refocusing our attention on the issue of food scarcity. |