Surreality — Allie E.S. Wist

Dinner Installation
HESSE-FLATOW (formerly CRUSH Curatorial)
Surreality, 2018

The multi-sensory dinner installation functioned both as a nod the Surrealist movement + an interpretation of "surreal" phenomena as I perceive them in 2019. Our contemporary psyche has been manipulated and rendered challenging by technology, politics, and socio-cultural distress. "Reality" is hard to see—fake news, quantum physics, artificial intelligence and even technological surveillance all agitate our ability to grasp the nature of reality that surrounds us and converge to render our current reality surreal. The food created for Surreality, thus, was not quite what it seemed, layered with ingredients and sculptural forms that provoked anxiety and distress.

Just as Surrealism investigated our psyche as a form of social liberation, I envision our sensory / psyche being an entry point to explore and expand our social experience around a table.

MENU:
Edible Rorschach test

Ce N'est Pas Une Salade
Salad with gold, silver, and pearl-plated cabbage

X = an Orange Soup

“Infinite power and memories”
Frankincense candies by Tessa Liebman

Are there thorns in the jello?
Jello bouquet with rose and hibiscus flowers

Exit, pursued by a cricket
Suspended future food sources: cricket, jackfruit, aloe