Be it through a prototype of a shopping mall, or through a kitchen spread over five levels that transfers food through interconnected plastic pipes or even a water purification tank capable of dishing up water recipes - marvellous stories about food are being told by artists.
Using performance art and interactive installations, seven artists from around the world are examining significance and relevance that food plays in today's society and are displaying their resulting creations through an exhibition titled "In Context:public.Art.Ecology: Food Edition II".
"We are what we eat. Besides being a subject of endless passionate discussion within our personal and most intimate lives, food has historically, been a significant indicator of our cultural, ecological and social realms," says Asmita Rangari who has curated the show by Khoj International Artists' Association.
Artists Agat Sharma and Ambica Joshi have created "Edible Ontologies," an installation modelled on a shopping mall with focus on shopping and eating.
Complete with a billing desk and hundreds of bottles filled with edible products like marmalades, cookies, candies etc, the installation encourages a viewer to produce their own retail products as they make their individual choices.
"...This work emphasises that the body performs the processes of shopping, very conscientiously, industriously, meticulously and attentively. The body also knows eating. The system of digestion is a well-practised method. It is through the complex processes of shopping and eating that the body thinks about itself," says 28-year-old Sharma, who is based in Jaipur.
Sharma and Joshi say they spent a period in residency selecting edibles, developing branding and communication material and crafting a make shift kiosk for distribution.
In their installation while some of the edible objects displayed are simple and well known to the sensory system others are almost unrecognisable and needs the viewer to employ a combination of diverse actions such as licking, biting, chewing, swallowing etc to understand the exhibit.
"The products, along with their retail paraphernalia, followed by the act of eating, puts the body in a state of contemplation. This food conjures a casual yet critical manoeuvre. Eating could put the body into a flux. The body starts to think about the city," says Joshi.
Lipika Bansal, 34, who lives between Delhi and Netherlands in her work titled "Chatpati Stories" teamed up with women from Khirki village here to explore the relation between women, local food culture eating habits, food routines and recipes through stories.
