CONSUME Artist Talk and Opening Reception

CONSUME, a group exhibition curated by Amanda McDonald Crowley, and informed by her current research at the intersection of art, technology and food systems, opens at gallery@calit2 on Thursday, April 11, 2013. Projects in the gallery document interdisciplinary ideas pertaining to current discussions in the fields of health, energy, technology, and the environment, and include works by: Brandon Ballengée, Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr, Justine Cooper, Beatriz da Costa, and Jamie O'Shea. Brandon Ballengée's pieces Committed, Dedicated, and Tears of Ochún respond to the global crisis of fisheries worldwide and the current threat of an unraveling of the food chain in the Gulf of Mexico following the 2010 BP Deep Horizon oil spill. The installation The Remains of Disembodied Cuisine, by Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr, documents a performance 'feast' of tiny, semi-living frog steaks that were grown for almost three months in bioreactors, with video made in collaboration with Jens Hauser. Justine Cooper's project Havidol is a fictional marketing campaign to launch a magic bullet lifestyle pharmaceutical, HAVIDOL®. The video triptych, Dying for the Other, by Beatriz da Costa, documents the lives of mice used in breast cancer research, as well as that of the artist, who suffered from the same disease [until her death in late December 2012 at the age of 38]. Placebo Brand Placebo, by Jamie O’Shea, is a kit to produce your own inert medication, in an experiment to discover if the placebo effect can be intentionally, consciously harnessed.

The public is welcome to attend the Artist Talk Thursday, April 11, 2013, which will be held in the Calit2 Auditorium at 5pm, and followed by a reception at 6pm. All gallery@calit2 events are FREE and open to the public.