Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles
Washington DC, United States
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Neon Parc, Melbourne
Heide MOMA, Melbourne
Missing Persons, Melbourne
COMA Gallery, Sydney
Singapore Biennale, Singapore
National Art School, Sydney
Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles
Bundanon Art Museum, Bundanon
COMA Gallery, Sydney
RISING, Melbourne
MUMA Monash, Melbourne
Missing Persons, Melbourne
(1) Handmade Mug’s hair pasta served with creamy oyster and portobello mushrooms with a generous
drizzle of olive oil, thyme, lemon and parmesan on plaster and wood sculptural supports (with rocks)
(2) Half-burnt rosemary and thyme focaccia in seatbelt restraint with homemade whipped ricotta and
drizzled basil oil
(3) Mouse Trap with Jarlsberg, Taleggio, Emmental La Vie De Chatea, Gorgonzola and Angel Triple
Cream with cracked pepper, beetroot and carrot crackers
2020–2021
Beginning as a series of experiments that used food as a sculptural material, she soon began to activate new works in a series of sculptural dinners in her Abbotsford home. Each month, three artists (who did not necessarily know one another) were invited to dinner to eat amongst a new installation. Their practices and career-stages varied. It was a meeting of art, artists and conversation, grounded in a desire to build friendships and share ideas.
Please Do Not Eat The Sculptures at Missing Persons is the final iteration of the series. The context, installation and scale of the final exhibition is different to the atmosphere of the intimate dinners in Abbotsford. However, the works continue to convey Nordin’s interest in fostering wonder and a kind of social magic. Please Do Not Eat The Sculptures harnesses Nordin’s continuing fascination with texture, colour and form, in this instance sitting somewhere between the abject and the delicious.
The introduction of food to this series expands the possibilities of what sculpture can do. It becomes a social binder, re-imagining norms around the public and the private. It encourages curiosity and speculation on the patterns we accept when engaging with art. When guests (viewers) eat the sculptures, they are implicated in the creative process. For Nordin, this is part of her ongoing attempt to remove any distinction between art and life.
The unlearning of our established relationships with food has been an essential ingredient of the series. The way we eat and cook is personal and cultural. The coded and socially reinforced expectations around eating are reinvented by their meeting with sculpture. Familiar recipes take on new names, eating utensils are discarded and food is served directly on sculptural platforms. Additionally, the preparations for Please Do Not Eat The Sculptures at Missing Persons have been supported by family, friends and communities who have given their time to cooking, discussing and planning. It is a testament to the powers of art and food to bring people together.
While there have been different expressions of Please Do Not Eat The Sculptures, the common thread is people coming together in ways that are a little unfamiliar, potentially uncomfortable but always warm and inviting. It is an initiative that will, surely, continue to bring more (and more and more and more and more) art into life.
– Sophie Prince, Curator, May 2021