Harvest

Harvest brings the love of art and food together at GOMA for this glorious exhibition, showcasing food in the gallery, in film and on the table.

In the celebration of food in art, visitors to Harvest will view more than 150 artworks from the QAGOMA collection – a visual feast of splendid still lifes dating from the 17th century up until today. Along with the paintings, striking video works, contemporary photos and stunning large-scale installations help to make up the exhibition, which also tells a story about the unfolding globalisation of food and role it has played in the preceding centuries.

Early still lifes were about depicting food, spices and flowers to show the prosperity of the colonies; from there things moved on to the impact on communities of food production that moved south from up north, the labour involved in production, the role of food as a symbol of prestige and today, artists grapple with themes of the ongoing impact of globalisation.

Amongst the cotemporary installations are Mika Rottenberg’s video installation Mary’s cherries 2004, Yael Bartana’s photographs recreating imagined ‘lost’ images by Jewish-German photographers Leni and Herbert Sonnenfeld, Xu Zhen’s ShangART Supermarket 2008, the recreation of a fully stocked convenience store, Aernout Mik’s video Pulverous 2003 showing a group of people wrecking the contents of a supermarket and Danish trio Superflex’s video documenting the flooding of a fast food restaurant in Flooded McDonald’s 2009.

A unique feature of this exhibition is Rirkrit Tirvanija’s Untitled (lunch box) 2009, with a dining table and chairs set for dinner and for one session a fortnight, 4 random visitors who happen to be there can pull up a chair and be treated to a Thai meal in the middle of the gallery.

For those not lucky enough to find themselves part of this art installation, GOMA Restaurant has an extraordinary Harvest menu especially created to coincide with the exhibition, which is a must try - at least once. For the month of July it opens on Friday nights, making the perfect evening food and art combo.

Or try the daily Harvest lunch special - Roasted Spatchcock with puffed corn, toasted grains and blueberry gel with a glass of wine for $20.

Meanwhile at GOMA’s Australian Cinematheque a major cinema program: Harvest: Food on Film will happen in parallel with the exhibition, with a programme of films that explore the pleasures and politics of food, including cult classics such as Babette’s Feast, Supersize Me and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.

Need to know: To coincide with Harvest and making the ideal souvenir, a special recipe book – catalogue is being released, featuring essays by Gallery curators interwoven with fabulous food photography and recipes from noted International and Australian chefs, including René Redzepi of Copenhagen’s world-famous Noma and Peter Gilmore of Sydney’s iconic Quay restaurant.