school of finearts FINAL exhibition fall 2013dec 4/11 gANzo florence a sense

of taste

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Trying to draw a projectual space that could somehow contain the vastness of the field surveyed, we have asked students to immerse themselves in the culture of our country, taking as its point of reference a direct sensory experience. When dealing with the works of the students, it is thus possible to trace the sense of taste as a common research tool, a much more complex method of investigation appears to reconstruct the origin of each individual project. Each of these works refer to a personal foray into space “still alive” in our culture and an exploration of a life evoked by the memory of the senses.

Imagining to retrace one of these explorations would be to step into the shoes, or rather into the senses, of a foreign traveler who, for the first time in Florence, takes a walk through the central market of San Lorenzo. The first impact would urge us to smell: the smell of bread, meat, fish, fruit and cheese. A stench that rises from individual banks, blending with neighboring flavors to become pervasive, invasive. It is a stain odor when in substantial dose takes the form of the tactile and almost envelops you, eventually to hear him, his hair, his clothes. Perhaps our traveler would also be overwhelmed by the amount of visual food, in all its variety, food is very different from that of the supermarket food culture we have become accustomed to: the packaged food and long shelf life. Food out of the packaging then, sometimes even in its appearance intact and recognizable, because they still work and are always closely linked with the human universe of some works, such as the fishmonger, the butcher or the baker, that now seem the work of anthropological studies.

Our short exploration there would probably already be sufficient incitement to affirm that the taste before even define a flavor that is already something tangible through the other senses and, therefore, interacts with a huge amount of information available up to demarcate the boundaries of a space that only by maintaining sufficient details and features, it becomes just a taste; in other words a sensory space that in our culture come to be embodied perfectly in a place of identity, or rather the idea of being what we eat.

Paride MorettiProfessor of Florence Sketchbook, and Painting

Florence University of the Arts

a sense of taste

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TasteGraphite pencil, 25x100 cmAdvanced DrawingProfessor: Alessandra Ragionieri

The sense of taste is a powerful skill of the human body, and is obtained through the mouth. The mouth serves as a portal to taste and ingest food, as well as a device for speaking. This project focuses on the process of saying the word ‘taste’ and how the mouth looks when each letter of the word is pronounced.

Happy Little PumpkinsPencil on white paper, 5x5 cm each Florence SketchbookProfessor: Paride Moretti

These five sketches were inspired by the overwhelming amount of fruits and vegetables available at the San Lorenzo Central Market in Florence. Being such an important food group to the regional cuisine, I chose to magnify the forms to emphasize the texture and details of each pumpkin, all ranging in size, shape, and lighting.

CAMILLA O

STRZYCKPace University

PerspectiveOil on canvas, 80x120cm

Intermediate PaintingProfessor Paride Moretti

This piece challenges perspective, in aspects of design, composition, and symbolism. Crabs move quickly in a sideways direction to confuse predators, forcing a shift in focus. Sometimes shifting focus can expand the mind, creating new insights and better understanding. Sometimes a different taste in perspective is needed to surface new insight and to refine and develop the aspects of one-self. The composition of the crabs and their red claws are challenging you to search for a change in perspective, to find and define and to continue to re-define your own sense of taste.AL

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Taste of Home (Triptych)Mixed Media, 28x38 cm each

Intermediate DrawingProfessor Alessandra Ragionieri

This work imitates the format of place mats, one placemat for each family member. They showcase each family member’s own tastes and preferences in food, which also serve as reminders of them. A “spoonful” of their personalities is also given, relating their preferences in food to their personalities. Place mats are commonly used at the dinner table, where everyone gathers and comes together to share a meal; so while there are separate place mats, they are also meant to bring families together. This is a little taste of my home.

ALYSSA CHEN University of California at Berkeley

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UntitledOil on canvas, 60x130cmAdvanced PaintingParide Moretti

Pigeons basically have no sense of taste, seeing as they eat everything and anything, yet they are maimed or die every day in the search of food. So, the sense of taste becomes more about the drive of hunger and the will to survive. Animals live simply to satisfy their needs: the need to reproduce and the need to eat. As humans, we have a few more complex needs, but still we must attain food no matter what. Even without a sense of taste at all, the need to consume food for sustenance would still be present.

LINDSAY LARIMO

REBaylor University, W

aco, Texas

BittersweetM&M’s and Coffee, 70x50 cm

Watercolor and Tempera/Gouaches TechniquesAlessandra Ragionieri

I knew that I wanted to experiment with a food-based medium before I decided on a subject matter. I dissolved chocolate M&M’s to get the colors blue, green, red, and orange. I also used a coffee wash to function as a neutral brown color. Because my two mediums represented both the tastes of bitter and sweet, I wanted to depict a love story that included both elements of bitter and sweet. I choose to portray the “love story” of Persephone and Hades from Greek mythology and used Bernini’s sculpture as a reference.

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The Celebration of the SensesPencil and watercolor on paper, 50x35cmFlorence SketchbookParide Moretti

These images depict the five senses as I believe them to be, within the mind of the artist. To me, to have a sense of taste goes beyond that which the tongue perceives and includes, instead, the five senses with which most of us explore our world. I believe it is possible to gain artistic inspiration from each of the five senses, for each has unique capabilities to detect the things that make up the world around us. All that is needed is keen observation and an open mind to experience the celebration of the senses.

Taste of InspirationOil and Mineral Spirits on Canvas, 50x70 cm

Advanced PaintingProfessor Paride Moretti

My writing has always had an element of focus on body language and expression, using the characters’ actions to portray the feeling of the situation instead of explicitly explaining it. Until recently I have not heavily used this in my art a mistake I wish to amend. I am a believer that the human condition is something best defined by the actions we can’t easily control, the responses that are easily overlooked except when we truly pay attention to them. In that there is truth, and it is something I wished to show in my paintings. Those little hints of the workings of the mind that come across in the face and body when we aren’t thinking about it. I also wished to focus around the aspect of food - its place in our lives, little gestures that go along with the rituals of eating.

AMANDA KAY G

REENIndiana State University

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Tasting a SmellWatercolor, 50x70 each

Professor: Alessandra Ragionieri

This is a reflection on how startling the experience is when the line between taste and smell is blurred, dismantling ones preconceived divide between the two senses.

Samsara and The AscensionOil on plastic, Oil on Cardboard, Different sizeAdvanced Painting, Advanced DrawingParide Moretti, Alessandra Ragionieri

In Hinduism there is an atman (soul) in all creatures. Death is a natural event so that the atman can be reincarnated in a new form and move closer to the ultimate release from Samsara, called Moksha. Killing an animal is an unnatural obstruction of the natural cycle of birth and death. Because of this, the animal’s atman is reborn in the same form. Therefore since cows are bred and killed for consumption, and their souls reborn again as cows-their atmans cannot reach Moksha. I see the cow as a scared mother. Her milk sustains our life. Humans are the only animals to drink milk in our adulthood and from another animal. Because of our indulgence, our existence is deeply intertwined with the cow. We take in her “lifeblood” and after the cow cannot produce milk, we eat her body. We use every part of her to make ourselves stronger. Our exploitive and dependent relationship to cows made me realize the sanctity of food.

CRYSTAL RODRIg

UEzFairfield University

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RemnantsEtching on zinc, aquatint, and shinkolai, 20x30 cmPrintmaking IntermediateProfessor: Alessandra Ragionieri

I wanted to focus on the idea that everything must be flavored. It’s a preoccupation that is probably more prevalent in the Western world. The print, Remnants, comes from the things we frequently ignore when we’re indulging in food - the wrapping, the containers. Things that go into landfills or hopefully recycling, and are only rarely thought about or really considered, in spite of all of the design and attention that goes into creating them.AM

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UntitledSoft ground and line etchingPrintmaking IntermediateProfessor: Alessandra Ragionieri

[...]. Being an artist I have realized that there is a point in which your creative appetite can go against nature and overrule any other need. There is something in all of us that drives this creative appetite, making life more meaningful than merely sustaining our system. The human tongue is the basis for our sense of taste, which drives our appetite. By magnifying the tongue to an unrecognizable image, it was my intent to stimulate this abstract appetite – to wonder, question, and imagine.

SpoonsPress molded white clay, ceramic plates, latex glue; dimensions of diameters of plates from smallest to largest: 22 cm, 22.5 cm, 23 cm, 27 cmCeramics (Advanced)Professor: Laura De Santis

The two things that stand out the most to me about living in Florence are the food and the architecture. In my work Spoons, I try to capture a sense of both. I play with the experience of taste through the espresso spoon, which is an object that I find appealing because of its form, size, and function. To me, the espresso spoon is perfect in representing the acute attention to detail that Italians pay to their food; it makes a great contrast to the larger spoons I am familiar with using in America. Therefore, I cast an espresso spoon in plaster, and used the mold to make multiple spoons, which I left unsmoothed. These “rusticated” spoons are a reference to the stonework found on many Florentine buildings, which often feature bricks that are left with an unfinished, rough quality, to contrast visually with bricks that are more refined. I displayed my spoons on smooth, finished ceramic plates to form a parallel to the contrasting rusticated and refined stonework. I also experimented with the pattern of the spoons, drawing my inspiration from the intense ornamentation found on and within local churches and palaces.

RACHEL NOLTE

SUNY New Paltz

Skin DeepBlack Pen, 50cm x 44.5cmFoundation DrawingProfessor: Nicoletta Salomon

The image is based on the American phrase “Beauty is only skin d e e p ”. D u e t o t h e culture’s obsession with physical appearance, what is underneath the skin and within a person’s heart has no longer become relevant. Comments on one’s physical appearance, both pos i t ive and n e g a t i v e , a re b a s e d on a common taste of what is considered to be attract ive. These comments are crippling as they set a standard for one to maintain and/or strive for, depriving one from cultivating one’s inner beauty and leaving them to be a hollow shell. The ribbon is meant to represent the comments about how we look and how they may hold us together for a while, but it is not a long-term solution to the question what is beautiful. EM

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IGUniversity of San Diego

Broken Forkpencil on paper, 40x50cm

Florence SketchbookProfessor: Paride Moretti

We take for granted our everyday utensils. Only when the knife is dull or the spoon is bent do we realize it’s necessity.

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HomePigment liner 50x70cm

Foundation DrawingProfessor: Nicoletta Salomon

This drawing represents the simple comforts of home. In my eyes, the spoon is like a small child lying next to its mother, the bowl. These two object are completely honest, and relax the mind due to their familiarity. The dark sepia paper represents my feeling of nostalgia. The unclear, grey tone of the paper is the view of flashing memories before my eyes. The memories of home, the memories of the past, and any memory that comforts me while I'm away from home here in Italy. These thoughts usually spark with the sight of something so simple, like a mother and a child, or a bowl and a spoon.

TATUM HO

HLUniversity of San Diego

My TastePigment Liner, 50x70 cmFoundation DrawingProfessor: Nicoletta Salomon

My Taste is my depiction of what it means to be an individual. Where I leave my fingerprints creates a path to be followed that offers a window into my soul. The locations I leave my mark are specific to my interests and preferences. And, just like a fingerprint, this representation is unique, individual, and cannot be replicated. Through my prints, I present to the world who I am, my tastes.

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Sense of TastePaper, Napkins, Black Marker, Watercolor, 15x12 cm

Advanced DrawingProfessor: Alessandra Ragionieri

I decided to closely follow the phrase “Florence, a City of Many Appetites” that was used by the Stony Brook Conference earlier this year. I composed five frames with the titles of restaurants, bars, and gelaterias that could be found all throughout Florence, representing each place with the unique font that they use themselves. Within each frame are figures drawn on napkins that were found in random restaurants. Each figure is subtly highlighted with red watercolor on different parts of the body, specifically those that are stimulated by taste or eating. In no particular order of importance, the first figure represents eyes, communicating that one gets visual stimulation from looking at food before it is consumed; the second is the stomach, where one’s appetites are finally settled. The third is the throat, where food travels after one has experienced its taste. The fourth is the mouth, where the sense of taste is literally experienced, and the last figure sports highlighted hair, to communicate that one receives mental stimulation from studying and tasting food. Together, these five frames make up a rather anatomical and geographic, local-friendly representation of the sense of taste.

ZI TA

MSUNY Stony Brook

Cigarettes on her lipsCharcol on paper, 110x80 cm

Advanced DrawingProfessor: Alessandra Ragionieri

With the theme of "sense of taste" I decided to create a drawing based not on the actual sensation of tasting something, but rather with the memories associated with a certain taste. In this case, I chose "The taste of cigarettes on her lips" as the primary focus of this piece. Thinking about this taste/sensation, I put together images from my memory without using any reference material, hoping to create something that would perhaps reflect a sense of nostalgia or some kind of emotion that hopefully the viewer

AcknowledgementsGabriella Ganugi – Palazzi and Florence University of The Arts President

Giulio Vinci - Palazzi General Menager

Thomas Browlees- Chair of the School of Arts and Science

ProfessorsLarissa Aharoni - Sculpture

Laura De Santis - Ceramics Beginning, Ceramics Intermediate

Paride Moretti - Painting, Drawing

Alessandra Ragionieri - Painting, Drawing, Printmaking

Nicoletta Salomon - Drawing, Florence Sketchbook

Special thanks to

Ganzo staff and all those who made the exhibition possible

and toF_AIR - Ganzo Collective

F_AIR - Ganzo Collective is a group of selected students of Florence University of the Arts, coordinated by Lucia Giardino and Antonio Locafaro, curatorial department, and by Nora Takacs, special event management. Fall 2013 F_AIR - Ganzo Collective includes students

Mario Ayala, Alyssa Chen e Courtney Kuhlow.

Art Gallery, Food and Restaurant, via de’Macci 85/r, Florence. Tel. 0039 055 241076

Front cover: Hanna Clock, UntitledPastels and pencil on paper, 70 x 100 cmAdvanced DrawingProfessor: Alessandra Ragionieri