Sophie
Untitled, 2018
Wooden table, found objects, cat barf
Private collection

The idea of food being the center of the home goes back to the Greek notion of Hera as goddess of the hearth. Yet, food by its very nature is ephemeral. The food is served, we eat it, the table is cleared, and there is no trace of the meal.

In our modern society, so often we struggle to make time and space for family meals. Frequently we cover our dinner tables with clutter. We don’t make time to sit down together as a family, and we often neglect to feed the cats on time. The cats are not fed at the family table. Rather, one cat has a food dish that locks out the other cat and the very hungry cat must struggle to dig food out of a puzzle feeder.

These cycles of everyday life go unnoticed and unrecorded. The kitchens, food dishes, and dinner tables are silent about their circumstances, and they have no way of telling a story.

In this series of work I was inspired by the social artifacts left behind by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The residents of Pompeii were caught unaware by the eruption of the volcano, and the pumice and ash captured the everyday lives of the people of the city.

Barfing on the objects left on the table makes their traces visible. Some of the objects mask the table from the barf, while other objects react with the barf. Once the objects have been removed and the table cleaned (by my assistants), a pattern of wood and stains remains, capturing a snapshot of everyday life.

dining room table