{"id":70365,"date":"2004-09-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-09-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uris-excess-photography-exhibition-offers-food-for-thought\/"},"modified":"2004-09-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-09-10T00:00:00","slug":"uris-excess-photography-exhibition-offers-food-for-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2004\/09\/uris-excess-photography-exhibition-offers-food-for-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Excess photography exhibition offers food for thought"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. — September 10, 2004 — Remember the Associated Press photograph of President George W. Bush serving our troops in Baghdad last Thanksgiving? In the picture, the commander-in-chief is shown hoisting a succulent-looking turkey atop a platter. Although the picture perfect turkey was, in fact, a plastic prop, the turkey is symbolic of our nation\u2019s abundance. The photograph with its Norman Rockwell echo is, so to speak, as American as apple pie.<\/p>\n


\nThe image is part of a fascinating and thought-provoking photography exhibit called \u201cExcess: Food as a Metaphor and Other Strategies of Consumption,\u201d which runs from Sept. 16 through Oct. 28 in the Photography Gallery, 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Fine Arts Center Galleries. The exhibition is open to the public without charge.<\/p>\n


\n \u201cFood is part of our national identity. It tells us something about ourselves, particularly the overabundance and excess of it,\u201d says 溏心vlog免费B站 anthropologist Marquisa LaVelle whose international studies include the effect of food on the body, particularly the health consequences of malnutrition and obesity.\t<\/p>\n


\nLaVelle joined forces with art historian Judith Tolnick, director of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Fine Arts Center, to create the exhibition, which is running in tandem with this fall\u2019s Honors Colloquium, \u201cFood & Human Rights, Hunger and Social Policy.\u201d While the colloquium focuses on the issues of food insecurity, the exhibition calls attention to the role food plays as a symbol of religious, cultural, ethnic, individual and national identity.<\/p>\n


\nA jarring centerpiece of the exhibition is a series of eight photographs of last meals requested by prisoners before their execution. The series, widely publicized by the international press, confronts and confuses the viewer with its mixed messages: the meal gives life to the body; the execution will take life away. After all, none of the prisoners lived long enough to digest what they ate.<\/p>\n


\nThe meals were painstakingly researched and recreated by Celia A. Shaprio before she photographed them. Tolnick had to track down Shapiro, a former New York City artist who had moved to Brazil after Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n


\nOne prisoner chose a dozen hot dogs for his last meal, another chose liver and onions, and yet another requested a Kit Kat candy bar and a bag of Cheez Doodles. One woman prisoner, Stacey Lamont Lawton chose a jar of sweet pickles. She was executed for burglary and murder in Texas, where most of the executions took place.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe photographs tell us something about the prisoners\u2019 social status, education, past histories, and past choices,\u201d says LaVelle whose commentary is printed in the illustrated color brochure, which accompanies the exhibition. \u201cEven though the meals are given as a \u201cgift\u201d to the condemned, no alcohol or cigarettes are allowed. <\/p>\n


\nThe meals are controlled and given in a controlled setting– served on stark cafeteria trays with plastic silverware.\u201d <\/p>\n


\n\tNot all food in the exhibition is confined. Along one of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s gallery walls a raucous food fight is in process. A group of Victorian schoolboys, dressed in proper school uniform, are seated in a formal dining room replete with chandelier, oil paintings, and oriental rug. The boys are in various stages of flinging food and making a mess that they will probably never be forced to clean up. They are, you understand, from the upper crust. The work is indulgent, wasteful, and fun. Not surprisingly, the photomontage entitled Feastlings 2001 by Cuban American artist Anthony Goicolea and featuring his image is huge — 40 by 75 inches.<\/p>\n


\nThere\u2019s much more to see. With a mischievous smile, Tolnick, notes that an elaborately decorated birthday cake will be part of the exhibition. The cake, of course, is a fake.<\/p>\n


\nGallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. The galleries are closed on federal and local holidays. Fidelity Investments is a major sponsor of this exhibit and others in the Fine Arts Center Galleries this fall.\n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — September 10, 2004 — Remember the Associated Press photograph of President George W. Bush serving our troops in Baghdad last Thanksgiving? In the picture, the commander-in-chief is shown hoisting a succulent-looking turkey atop a platter. Although the picture perfect turkey was, in fact, a plastic prop, the turkey is symbolic of our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}