In 2010 an invitation was issued to artists, anthropologists and significant others to come together to break bread at the Edible Companions exhibit for the Multispecies Salon which opened at The Front gallery in New Orleans. The idea was to personify companion species that were not just good to think or good to eat, but also entities and agents that, in the words of Donna Haraway, were good to live with.
As co-curators of the event, Amy Jenkins and Nina Nichols, alongside Audubon Insectarium chef Zack Lemann, whipped up a banquet table featuring grasshopper shish kabob, meal-worm salsa, cricket mango chutney, sweet bee cakes and various epicurean entomological delicacies. Jenkins and Nichols also served up goat cheese made from the milk of the goats from their guerrilla bioremediation project, the Pretty Doe Dairy.
Jesse Stoltzfus brewed mead from local mulberries and blueberries and the creators of The Museum of Natural Ephemerata from Austin Texas, Scott and Jen Webel, served libations from their Traveling Kombucha Research Station and exhibited a whisker from the legendary Doc Chowder. Local artist Michelle Basta premiered her elegantly glowing funerary cases of collaged fruit and flower fibers and hung delicate casts and gowns made from resin paper maché and fruit and flower fiber paper from the trees skirting the banquet table.
The exhibit reminded the audience of the thin lines that separate us from our edible environment. It pushed the boundaries of what humans consider to be appropriate for consumption, as the diversity of our food environment is constantly subject to change.
See also: Edible Companions
Further Reading
Kirksey, Eben et al. (2014) “Edible Companions” in The Multispecies Salon, Durham: Duke University Press, p. 112.
