Food Bead Maze Table

2022, Sugar, mugwort, black sesame cookies, ribbon, and heart-shaped pretzels, sesame seed-adorned bagels and bead-embroidered eggs, steel, wood, and cotton

Inspired by the form of a bead maze table you find in a waiting room in a doctor’s office, I created a dinner table of “food beads.” To explore the relationship between food, craft, play, and art, I transformed the forms of some of the food that can be made as beads, both a unit of craft and a play material. I made beads-shaped cookies, bagels, ribbon-shaped pretzels, and embroidered eggs, all reimagining them as play objects. Then, I allowed the viewers to play with the food and enjoy them. Food is similar to craft in that so much labor is involved only to be consumed. I enjoy the forbiddance and absurdity of playing with food, crossing the boundary of food being edible and inedible, and art being enjoyed through our eyes and tongue.