HAND TO MOUTH
Arts House Meat Market, Melbourne, June 2008.
hand-to-mouth.org
In collaboration with Adele Varcoe.
Hand to Mouth is an investigation of relationships of production and consumption at work in the global economy. In affluent societies we constantly consume products that have been touched by many anonymous hands along the way. In a sense, we are also consuming other people’s lives in this process. The meal prototypes and the production line structure are designed to highlight the long process of material transformation involved in the production of the commodities that we consume on a daily basis. The strange and exotic meals are rarefied products to serve the constant need for novelty that drives consumption in our affluent culture. The conscious inclusion of the camera crew and stage management into the structure of Hand to Mouth is designed to highlight the production and management of experience as just another commodity in ‘reality culture’. The inclusive, participatory nature of the event does not allow for an outside perspective. We are all watching and being watched.
The next stage of the work will be a documentary film and installation. We are also hoping to develop the work further and stage it again at a different location.
