Koki Tanaka: Eating the History, Reflecting the Present (Whose Victory?)

27 April 2016 – 4 May 2016

[Closed events]
Workshop: 27 April 2016, 3.30–4.30pm
Lunch: 4 May 2016, 1–2pm

Leading out of the artist’s interests in ‘victory gardens’ which were set up during World War 2 to help feed the nation, local residents and staff from The Showroom are working with Koki Tanaka to make food for a Church Street networking lunch event on Wednesday 4 May 2016, using wartime recipes and ingredients typically grown in victory gardens (see menu below).

Lunch is being served alongside footage of air raids on 10 and 11 May 1941, sounds of contemporary bombing raids and a display of aircraft tyres and other parts, referencing The Showroom building’s former use as a factory producing parts for wartime aircraft.

Menu
Vegetable stew served with bread and butter
Potato salad
Vegetable tops salad
Grated root vegetable salad

Mock apricot tart served with cream

Part of Koki Tanaka’s commission Provisional Studies: Action ## 5 Conceiving the Past, Perceiving the Present, which is in the third and final round of How to work together commissions.

How to work together is a shared programme of contemporary art commissioning and research organised by The Showroom, Chisenhale Gallery and Studio Voltaire, and is supported by a capacity building and match-funding grant from Arts Council England through Catalyst Arts, with additional funding from Bloomberg and Jerwood Charitable Foundation. With additional funding for the 2016 commissions from Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and The London Community Foundation.

The commission is also supported by Vitamin Creative Space, The Japan Foundation, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.

Liverpool Biennial and The Showroom are working in partnership on the commissioning of Koki Tanaka’s work in 2016.