| This dissertation examines intersections between contemporary art, food, and biotechnology, focusing on artists who engage their audiences in ethical debates about the effects of genetically modified (GM) food on our gastronomic culture and our food supply. I call the spaces that artists create for experimentation "art labs," and discuss the political potential of such spaces, also considering how the laboratory format interfaces with the factory, the kitchen, and the art gallery. Beginning with the commingled histories of home economics, domestic computing, and feminist art, I propose the term "recipe artist" to describe the work of the Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), Martha Rosier, and Christine Chin, whose projects invoke the recipe as a familiar genre capable of connecting people with food, industry, and interspecies hybrids. I read the recent performance installations of the Critical Art Ensemble as imaginings of social democracy within industrial food systems. CAE's projects dwell on the hidden lives of vegetables and greens, uncovering the degree to which genetically modified foods have entered the food supplies of humans and non-humans. Making a food supply of their own, the Tissue Culture & Art Project's Disembodied Cuisine installation creates a small meal of in vitro meat made from frog cells. Food emerges as an important lens through which to view human/animal relationships, questions of embodiment, and the political ramifications of technological development. Creating, documenting, and consuming food become critical activities when recontextualized in performance. Art practice extends beyond objects and social relations to include plant and animal flesh, its manipulation, and its consumption. Art projects can be both inspired by and constitutive of science research. By providing evocative environments for exposing and contemplating the complex systems that we interact with every day, biological art reveals both pleasure and disgust at the table and critical awareness of the interdependent, situated self. |
