September 2011, part of 'What is Food'
Darren Sperring, trained as a dietician and worked in hospitals and surgeries throughout England while pursuing his art practice. The concept for the exhibition ‘What is Food?’ initiated from discussions centred on Darren’s humorous observational practice, which focussed on how people consider their diet, what they choose to eat and the way the consume food.
Darren's response to 'What is food?'
Answer: Any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body.
The wider answer is a bit more of a tricky biscuit to answer but working as a dietitian for 10 years did give me some understanding of food, in a chemical, social and psychological context.
In my work I explore concepts like GM, supermarkets, food technology, marketing and the social, psychological and philosophical relationship we have to food.
I also explore possible new concepts in the food industry for example; Left Handed Food (patent pending), Homosexual Wine, Virtual Reality Gluten-Free Biscuits, Eggless Scotch Eggs, Super Foods that can make you invisible for an hour.
A significant part of my food-art includes food/s presented in a slightly altered state which is designed to explore how we view food, its relationship to us and society.My work has a splash of conceptualism, an ounce of absurdity and 50 grams of humour, mixed together and cooked in the oven until golden brown.
See more of Darren's work on Flickr [click]
