British Council British Council Visual Arts

From antiquity to today, food has been a recurring subject matter in the history of art. From early depictions in mythological scenes, to those found in religious art of all cultures; from symbolic meanings to formal concerns, food has been presented in many guises and for many purposes by artists throughout the ages. Eating for sustenance and for pleasure have always gone hand in hand and the art of presenting food solely for display, to awe and entertain guests, goes back to Ancient Greece and Rome.

We get sensual pleasure from eating and an emotional link to food goes back to our earliest days. Food is desire, pleasure, life and death; it is decay, excess and greed. It is a language, a cultural insignia, used by artists to convey the many different aspects of this relationship. Pot Luck brings together works by internationally acclaimed contemporary artists who show us how the use of food in art keeps being re discovered , highlighting the more serious condition of our society today, as well as the pleasurable one.

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