Mini Post #3

The Feast and Famine exhibit explores the connections between the foods that we consume with the world around us. Though we may not always consider these connections, the works depicted below examine how aspects of race, technology, and environmental transformation connect with ideas of food consumption.

Renee Cox, The Liberation of Lady J and UB, 1998

Renee Cox presents a modern day twist on the images of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, fictional black characters whose familiar faces were portrayed on the boxes of popular brands of pancake mix and brown rice. The artist inserts herself into the image as a heroic liberator of these two characters, who is able to drag them into the future away from the shackles of their images, and instead depicts them as modern-day superheroes. In this way, Cox is able to liberate them from the pervasive racism of offensive archetypes, such as the “mammy”. Suddenly, these characters are no longer convenient commodities available for consumption, like the products they represent. Cox illustrates the ways food commodities can be linked to concepts of racial hierarchy.

Pieter Bruegal the Elder, The Harvesters, 1565

Bruegal depicts a different aspect of food consumption in his painting of The Harvesters. Aside from a lush and bright landscape, we see some of the farm workers taking their lunch break and indulging in momentary leisure. A closer look reveals some eating bread and other food from baskets and drinking heartily from a jug. We’re reminded of the cyclical nature of production and consumption, as the workers are likely consuming the food they have harvested with their own hands. However, in the background we see some of the others already back to their work, bringing into question the temporary nature of their escape from the daily toils which presumably provide an important service to a larger community.

Mike Libby, You Are My Sunshine, 2019 

Libby displays a robotic, solar-panel plated bee. As the number of bees worldwide continue to dwindle and populations face extinction, Libby plays with the idea of automating the necessary role that bees play in the ecosystem. It’s interesting to consider how new forms of clean energy technology can be incorporated in the reversal and management of the effects of extreme climate change. Libby’s leads us to consider the increasing role that technology stands to play in the future, especially around issues of food production and the effects of climate change.

Anna Maria Sibylla Merian, Plate 9 from the Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam, 1719 

Here we see Merian depict an image of caterpillars experiencing their natural cycle of life and transforming into bright colored butterflies. We see the cocoon of a caterpillar — an insect which most would instinctively avoid consuming — housed inside what appears to be a pomegranate. A butterfly is seen graciously suckling on a rosy-red flower, fulfilling its own need for an energy source and again providing a necessary service to the larger ecosystem. The concept of earth's natural species undergoing transformation is parallel to the concept of transforming technologies that imitate natural life, such as Libby's robotic bee.

Works Cited

BlackExcellence.com. “Aunt Jemima: It Was Never About the Pancakes.” Medium, Medium, 1 Feb. 2018, https://medium.com/@blackexcellence/aunt-jemima-it-was-never-about-the-pancakes-14a48a6523d.


“Feast & Famine.” Paul Robeson Galleries, https://paulrobesongalleries.expressnewark.org/exhibition/feast-and-famine/.

Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael W. Cothren. Art History. Pearson, 2018.