Feasting on Art» Collaboration

Colour Purple – Benjamin Roberts – Baked Custard with Plums

Megan Fizell — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:56:02 +0000

Adorning the cloaks and garments of royalty, the colour purple was often called imperial purple due to the close association. The word purple is a derivative of the original Greek porphura, the name of the Tyrian purple dye of antiquity extracted from a spiny snail. The pigment was extremely expensive to produce and only the very wealthy could afford clothes dyed the colour of grapes and plums. As a secondary colour, purple is wedged between red and blue on the colour wheel. The tones leaning towards the blue side of the spectrum were desired due to their association with the rare blue pigment favoured by artists and craftsmen.

Benjamin Roberts, Still life of plums with a cabbage white, 1862
oil on board, 16 x 21.5 cm, Private collection

Very little research is readily available concerning the British artist Benjamin Roberts. From the date of the painting, one can gather that he was active during the Victorian movement in the United Kingdom. The delicate details of the yellow butterfly, small tendrils on the leaf and the gleaming water droplet upon the plum epitomise the art of this period. The delicacy of the painting is matched in the subtle flavouring in the recipe of the baked custard. With the mellow warmth of the nutmeg and the fragrant vanilla, this simple custard is studded with bright plum slices that are carefully arranged to fashion a purple-tipped flower.

{Baked Custard with Plums}

Yield: 4 servings

2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
200 ml heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1 plum

Preheat the oven to 180C. In an oven-proof bowl, mix the eggs and sugar together, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Add the vanilla, nutmeg, cream and milk and mix well. Place the bowl in a roasting pan and fill with water until it is half way up the sides of the pan. Slide into the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the plum in half and remove the pit. Slice each half into quarters and divide each quarter into three crescents. Set aside.

After 30 minutes remove the custard from the oven. It should still be soft but beginning to set around the edges. Arrange the plum slices in a circle starting around the outside edge and moving inwards. Put the custard back into the oven for an additional 15-20 minutes until the centre is just set. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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The Colour Project

Henri Matisse vs. Pablo Picasso – Sweet & Sour Chicken

Megan Fizell — Thu, 19 May 2011 11:33:42 +0000

Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse were two of the most influential Modernist artists working in the first half of the twentieth century. The two artists met in 1905 at one of the gatherings of Gertrude Stein who was a patron of Picasso‘s. Their work was – and still is – often compared and upon meeting, the two become both lifelong friends and rivals. Whereas Picasso often conjured his compositions from his imagination, Matisse preferred to work from nature and would complete much more expansive interiors around his subjects.

Left: Pablo Picasso, Vase, Bowl and Lemon, 1907,
oil on panel, 62 x 48 cm, Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Right: Henri Matisse, Still Life with Blue Tablecloth (detail), 1909,
88 x 118 cm, oil on canvas, The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Picasso‘s Vase, Bowl and Lemon – illustrated above left – was painted the same year he joined a premoninant Paris gallery that championed the work of Cubism. It is also the same year he completed Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, a painting that is often considered a reactionary work to Matisse‘s Le bonheur de vivre, painted the year prior. Through Le bonheur de vivre, Matisse gained notoriety as a leader of the Modern Arts and although Picasso was 12 years his junior, Picasso gained via Les Demoiselles – according to art critic Hilton Kramer – the “role of avant-garde wild beast.” Considering the two paintings illustrated above, their shared aesthetic is evident. Whereas Picasso applied the techniques of Cubism to his work, Matisse looked to the Fauvists with both artists using a similar palette to construct the blue interior with a simple arrangement of lemons and vessels.

{Sweet & Sour Chicken}

As a nod to the sweet & sour relationship between Matisse and Picasso as well as the aesthetic influences from Asia, this sweet & sour chicken recipe is a modified version of the takeaway classic.

adapted from Chinese Food Made Easy

1/4 cup cashews
1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 chicken tenderloins
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/3 cup pineapple
1/3 cup pineapple juice
1 teaspoon soy sauce
handful of rocket, to serve

Preheat the oven to 210C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. With a motor and pestle, mash the cashews with the salt and chili until finely ground. On a large plate, pour out the nuts and begin pressing each chicken tenderloin into the mixture ensuring that there is an even coating on each piece. Lay the chicken on the baking sheet and once each tenderloin is covered with the nut mixture, slide them into the oven for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Meanwhile, add the lemon, pineapple + juice and soy sauce into a small bowl. Puree with a hand blender and transfer to a small saucepan. Cook over high heat for 1-2 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Season to taste (you may need to add more pineapple juice if the lemon is particular large to balance out the sourness).

Wash the rocket and place a small amount on each plate. Top with chicken and drizzle over the sweet & sour sauce. Serve warm.

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1 Year Ago: Bartolomeo Bimbi – Sour Cherry Turnovers with Goat Cheese

2 Years Ago: Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Crespelle with Bacon & Mushroom Ragu

Colour Blue – Pablo Picasso – Broccoli + Blue Cheese Soup

Megan Fizell — Thu, 12 May 2011 09:59:05 +0000

The colour blue – reserved for the robes of the holiest of mothers – was one of the rarest and most expensive pigments in use during the Renaissance. For the depiction of Virgin Mary, only ultramarine was used due to its price and elusiveness as it is was found only in Asia and is presently mined in only a handful of places around the world. The name ultramarine was derived from the Italian oltramarion meaning ‘from beyond the sea’ because it was imported from Asia. Made from ground lapis lazuli, the pigment yielded a brilliant hue verging on the violet side rather than the greenish tint commonly found in the substitute colour, azurite.

Pablo Picasso, Still-Life with Cheese, 1944
oil on canvas, Private collection

Completed 40 years after the artist’s infamous ‘Blue Period’, Picasso‘s Still-Life with Cheese depicts a domestic tableaux in a somber palette. The painting, composed with a range of blues and grays punctuated with a dash of yellow, was completed in 1944. At that time, Picasso was living in German-occupied Paris and was ending an almost 10-year liaison with his mistress, both reasons to warrant the subdued painting. Like the Still Life relief of 1914, Picasso looks to the emmental variety of Switzerland to represent cheese because of it’s characteristic holes. The holes enabled Picasso to clearly denote the cheese within the larger compositions of abstract geometric shapes in his paintings.

{Broccoli + Blue Cheese Soup}

Yield: 4 servings

1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon butter
2 small potatoes
1 large head of broccoli
1 liter vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
salt + ground pepper
100 grams of blue cheese
olive oil + fresh herbs for garnish

Finely chop the onion and garlic. Add to a large pot over medium high heat. Add the melted butter and saute until the onions become soft, around 5 minutes. Cube the potatoes and the stalk of the broccoli and add to the pot with the vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender, 15-20 mintues.

Chop the flower portion of the head of broccoli and add to the pot. After 2-3 minutes, add the nutmeg, salt + pepper and blue cheese. Stir well and use a hand blender to puree the mixture. Once smooth, spoon into bowls, drizzle with olive oil and garnish with fresh herbs.

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The Colour Project

Colour Green – Jonathan Monk – Greens Salad

Megan Fizell — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 23:57:26 +0000

Green is one of the most abundant colors; there are greens in every imaginable shade and tone throughout the world’s natural landscapes. From green algae to rainforest canopies, green permeates and dominates in its diversity. Individual greens are often blurred as countless plants merge into a color field, many overlapping green leaves forming the density of forests or millions of blades blending to become a sports field’s smooth surface. The simultaneous layering and highlighting that is seen in nature can be compared to the artwork of Jonathan Monk, who’s layering of meaning and medium fuse together history, critique, and technique. Monk’s 2002 work, Green with hidden Noise combines a single solid swath of green painted roughly on a white wall with a slide projection focused directly atop this patch of color. The circular projection itself appears to depict a green scene: a forest of trees? The composition is green on green.

Jonathan Monk, Green with hidden Noise, 2002,
slide installation and wall painting, image courtesy Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe and Berlin

While the work literally layers color and medium: green paint on a white wall and a green photographic slide projection, it also layers reference. Quoting Marcel Duchamp’s 1916 work, With Hidden Noise, which consists of two brass plates sandwiching a mass of string said to house an unidentified object, Monk’s titling provides referential cues. The “noise” that Duchamp references is the sound the concealed object would make when interacted with. Within Monk’s work, the noise may be something more like TV static, the irritation of a noisy image, the blurring of vision.

Like Green with hidden Noise, this Greens recipe recombines raw materials, or sources as it were. Within both, it is particularly the act of overlapping and combination that creates value. Here a Turkish inspired salad is given a new spring twist. By using all green ingredients, the subtle changes in texture and taste make each bite pop and stand out within the recipe’s single color palette. In this sense it is a study in flavor and perception inviting those feasting, like Monk’s audience, to take time to distinguish one piece from the whole. Use only fresh ingredients and you will see the forest for the trees – each crisp bite bringing together a true harbinger of spring!

{Greens Salad}

For the perfect pairing, serve with fresh homemade falafel and hummus.

Yield: 4 servings

4 generous cups baby field salad
1 cup fresh green peas, steamed and cooled (thawed if frozen)
½ cup green onion, chopped thinly
½ cup fresh cilantro (coriander), chopped finely
½ large cucumber, sliced thinly

Dressing
1 cup mild yogurt
juice from ½ of one large lemon
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons fresh dill, chopped finely

Rinse and spin dry the baby field salad, taking care to trim off the roots. Layer together in a large serving bowl: salad, green peas, green onion, fresh cilantro, cucumber slices, repeat!

Mix together in a small dish: yogurt, lemon juice, honey and fresh dill.

Refrigerate until use.

Add the dressing and toss salad just before serving.

Cassandra Edlefsen Lasch is a Berlin-based art historian and artist advisor active within international contemporary art production and project realisation. Investigating collaboration is central to her work and her recipes are all gluten-free.
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The Colour Project

Colour Green – Lin Fengmian – Hot & Sour Lime Soup

Megan Fizell — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:31:09 +0000

When considering the colour green, there are a number of connotations that are promptly conjured; green is the colour of money and wealth, through which one can become ‘green with jealously.’ Likewise, it is the colour of nature, growth, and life and one can have a ‘green thumb.’ It is within the secret green porcelain of China, called mi se meaning ‘mysterious colour’, that the two connotations of the colour intersect. Mi se was produced in the 9th and 10th centuries in China and was reserved for only the Emperor to see – let alone use – and the porcelain was so secretive that first verified example was not discovered until 1987. The porcelain was more valuable than gold and silver although its popularity ‘stemmed partly from the Chinese tendency to mythologise art, in order to appreciate it better (1).’ The green colour of mi se was derived from a small amount of iron in the glaze and the porcelain itself was obtained from nature. Mi se ‘comes from the mountains – from their earth and their forests. The wood was used for firing…and the clay was used for the body of the porcelain. But the two together – as wood ash and kaolin – were also used for the glaze that makes up its delicate skin and jade-like colour (2).’ This green porcelain of the earth represented the pureness of nature yet was an elusive commodity that embodied the wealth and power of the Chinese elite.

Lin Fengmian, Still Life, 1988
ink and colour on paper, 68.3 x 68.3 cm, Private collection

Born in 1900, Lin Fengmian began his artistic education as a self-taught pupil with his formal studies commencing, after a move to France, at the Dijon National Academy of Fine Arts in 1920. While in Europe, Fengmian travelled to Berlin and was introduced to the northern European painting movement which contributed to his interest in the combination of Eastern and Western aesthetic concepts. Still Life was completed at the end of Fengmian’s life and most likely features a small vignette from his own home in Hong Kong. Although he worked within the language of Western visual culture, his work is uniquely Chinese through the use of the traditional materials of ink and rice paper. Unique to his art is the square format and bright colours and by painting within the Western aesthetic, Fengmian’s work is comprehensible to international viewers.

{Hot & Sour Lime Soup}

Yield: 6 servings

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 green chili, de-seeded and minced
2 tablespoons ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
zest of 1 lime
juice of 2 limes
1 tablespoon brown sugar
6 cups vegetable stock
1 stalk lemongrass, quartered and crushed
2 dried kaffir lime leaves
1.5 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 cup sliced bamboo shoots
1 packet egg noodles
1 block firm tofu, cut into cubes
1/3 cup re-hydrated shiitake mushrooms, cut into strips
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes
2 large eggs
small bunch fresh cilantro
3 stalks green onion, finely sliced

In a large pot, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Stir fry the chili, ginger, garlic and lime zest for 1 minute before adding the lime juice and brown sugar. Swirl around the bottom of the pot for about 30 seconds and add the vegetable stock. Cut the lemongrass into quarters and smash with the side of a knife. Stir the soup well and add the kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass stalk and soy sauce. Bring the soup to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes over medium heat to develop the flavors.

After the soup has reduced slightly and the flavors have become concentrated, remove the kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass. Add in the bamboo shoots, egg noodles, firm tofu and mushrooms. Cook for about 5-10 minutes, until the noodles are soft.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a small bowl. Add the rice wine vinegar and dried chili flakes to the soup and begin to swirl the broth. In a small stream, pour the egg mixture into the soup, carefully stirring to keep the tofu from breaking apart. Once the egg is incorporated, add the cilantro and green onion and serve immediately.

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The Colour Project

Colour Yellow – Wolfgang Laib – Pollen and Turmeric Rice

Megan Fizell — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 21:51:31 +0000

Subtleties of taste, texture and tone – a simple meditation on the infinite. Made of rice and pollen meticulously mounded across the floor, Wolfgang Laib’s 2007 work, Ohne Zeit – ohne Ort – ohne Körper, acts as an ephemeral testimony to existence in its rawest forms. Amidst the grid work of rice mountains, the glowing yellow of three central pyramidal piles is strikingly potent – a concentration of hazelnut pollen.

Wolfgang Laib, Ohne Zeit – ohne Ort – ohne Körper (detail), 2007,
piles of rice, 3 piles of hazelnut pollen, 470 x 410cm, image courtesy Galerie Thaddeus Ropac

Since the early 80s, the artist’s work has blended the libational rituals of India, the seasons of southern Germany and the visual vocabulary of conceptualism. Having collected pollen seasonally over 30 years, Laib’s inclusion of the raw granules in his artwork developed as a means of expressing the finite and infinite alike. Like the rituals of food preparation, Laib follows his skilled diligence of gathering with methodical composition and a tasteful eye for his works’ ultimate reception. Many of his works, including Ohne Zeit – ohne Ort – ohne Körper, which translates to ‘Without time – without place – without body’, center visually on perishable foods like milk, pollen, rice and beeswax, the presentation and eventual dispersal of which, reinforce his meditations on existence.

Why rice, why pollen? Within Laib’s work, the composition of materials is as relevant as their formation. Believing life to be beyond the limits of a physical form, his works’ sculptural simplicity allow his mediums to take on and exhibit their own symbolic natures. In a 2009 interview Laib reflects on his use of pollen and its potential symbolism: “The pollen is the potential beginning of the life of the plant. It is, I think, as simple, as beautiful and as complex as this. And of course it has so many meanings. But, I think everybody who lives knows this is important.”

In Ohne Zeit – ohne Ort – ohne Körper Laib espouses the nourishing and life-sustaining qualities of rice alongside the potentiality active in pollen. Both mounds, that of rice and that of pollen, are composed of a multitude of particles, yet in comparison the pollen dust suggests the infinite. The merging of so many infinitesimal grains into one color field, particularly the vivid yellow of the pollen, viscerally draws in the viewer’s attention just as the color plays such a central role in attracting bees and pollinators in nature.

Complimenting Laib’s subtle poetics, this recipe seasons a staple of rice with pollen and turmeric to re-imagine a classic and minimalist saffron rice. This dish’s mild flavor readily accompanies spicy and aromatic courses. The pollen and turmeric imbue the rice with a saturated yellow tone that would serve well to complete a meal’s color palette. Plus, eating small quantities of local pollen regularly is said to support resistance against local allergens – pollen the superfood!

{Pollen and Turmeric Rice}

Yields: 4 servings

1 cup basmati rice
2 cups chicken stock
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pollen (local if possible)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Rinse the rice under cold water in a fine sieve.

Heat medium saucepan over medium heat and add butter until melted. Add rice and stir to coat in butter. Add salt, pollen and turmeric – stirring constantly for just under 3 minutes, do not brown the rice. Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat.

Simmer for 15 – 20 minutes. The chicken stock should be fully absorbed. Serve immediately.

Cassandra Edlefsen Lasch is a Berlin-based art historian and artist advisor active within international contemporary art production and project realisation. Investigating collaboration is central to her work and her recipes are all gluten-free.
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The Colour Project

Colour Yellow – Gustavo Montoya – Banana Flan

Megan Fizell — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 10:07:19 +0000

Yellow is a colour of juxtapositions. In the natural world, animals and insects cloak their bodies (often in conjunction with the colour black) to signify poison, danger. Likewise, it is the colour of death, the sallow skin of a sick person and the brilliant autumnal yellow of leaves before they fall to the ground. The colour is derived from a number of materials including some of the most dangerous in the world, cadium sulfide, lead chromate and the pigment named orpiment made from arsenic. Orpiment, or King’s Yellow/Chinese Yellow, touches upon other connotations of the colour, power and wealth. As the colour of gold, the pigment was used to paint the halos of angels and the garments of the Hindu god Krishna. In China, yellow robes were reserved for only the Emperors to wear, hence the name King’s Yellow. As the embodiment of sunshine, yellow was most commonly derived from saffron, the stigmas of the crocus. The deep golden hue was used to stain foods and fabrics alike and is still today, the world’s most expensive spice. There are a number of food connotations with regard to the colour, hues vary from maize to mustard – popular colours in the 70′s appearing on a number of goods including bell bottoms and retro lamps – to the vibrant tones of lemon and apricot. Generally considered a happy colour, perhaps it is the sunshine-like colouration of citrus fruits that in conjunction with the bright flavour, that help to dispel the dark days of winter.

Gustavo Montoya, Still Life with Bananas
oil on canvas, 80 x 119.4cm, Private collection

Still Life with Bananas is a typical still life subject by the artist Gustavo Montoya. He often painted the fruits and sweets of his native Mexico and the bright, monochrome colour palette highlights his interest in abstraction. The layering of colour from the bright yellow, to a light orange and dark brown suggests the colouring of a flan with the rich caramel crust, pool of caramel sauce and light creamy custard. Flan is a custard dessert that is poured over a layer of caramel and baked in a bain-marie. The etymological origins of flan are quite convoluted and can be traced through French, Old French and Medieval Latin before arriving at the Old High German root flado meaning ‘flat cake.’ In Latin American, the dessert is typically called leche flan as it is primarily served with dulce de leche. The deeply sweet and rich flavor components of dulce de leche are echoed in this flan recipe through the addition of condensed milk.

{Banana Flan}

Yields: 6 servings

1/2 cup sugar
250 ml evaporated milk
2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup whole milk
2 large eggs + 4 egg yolks

Preheat the oven to 170C. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, add the sugar and begin stirring with a wooden spoon. Once the sugar melts, after about 5 minutes, stir only until all lumps are gone and the colour just begins to darken. Carefully pour the melted sugar into the flan mold, or individual ramekins.

In a large bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mash with the back of a fork or squeeze the banana with your hands. Mix until there are minimal banana lumps and all of the ingredients are fully incorporated. Pour the mixture into the flan mold or ramekins on top of the melted sugar.

Place the flan mold or ramekins into a deep pan that is half full with hot water. Slide the water-filled pan with the flan mold into the preheated oven. Bake for about 1 hour and remove from the oven to let cool. If using a flan mold, turn over onto a serving platter.
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The Colour Project

Colour Orange – Margaret Preston – Thai Papaya Salad

Megan Fizell — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:30:21 +0000

The colour orange has always been one of warning used for it’s eye-catching qualities to delineate danger. The pigment was produced through a difficult process of grinding down madder, the pink root of a small bush. Madder is often used to make ‘rose madder genuine’ watercolor paint but when used as a dye, a rich shade of orange-red will emerge when a bit of alum is added to the bath (1). The dependence on the natural madder pigment did not end until 1869 when the specific chemical that causes the red-orange coloration was replicated in a formula. Over the past 30 years there has been a small revival within the industry to relearn the techniques associated with natural dye production.

Margaret Preston, Still life: fruit (Amhem Land motif), 1941
oil on canvas, 43 x 53.3 cm, National Gallery of Australia

From the 1920s onward, Margaret Preston became an Australian arts icon through her use of the linocut and woodblock technique. The aesthetic styles of the Japanese, Chinese and primitive art forms of the Aboriginal communities in Australia inspired her work. Preston created her compositions with large, flat planes of colour and a minimal palette. In Still life: fruit (Amhem Land motif), Preston looked to the ochre and black/white Tiwi artist palette and the dot/dash mark making technique of the native Aboriginals. The fruits and nuts were depicted as simplified forms, outlined with a thick application of white and black paint. The painting, while including many of the specific ingredients found in som tam (Thai papaya salad), is a complex painting made of a simple palette of colors. This complexity from simplicity is mirrored in the salad with the representation of the four major flavors of Thai cuisine, the sour lime, spicy heat from the chili, saltiness of the fish sauce and sweetness. Typically, green papaya is used but by swapping out the green fruit for a ripe orange one, the palm sugar is omitted and the natural sweetness of the fruit is highlighted. The small salad packs a lot of flavor and should be eaten gingerly, the red chilies are bracingly spicy.

{Thai Papaya Salad}

serves 2

1 large papaya
1 red chili, thinly sliced
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
small handful coriander, roughly chopped
10 salted peanuts, chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 TB fish sauce

Remove the soft flesh of the papaya until you are left with the semi-firm fruit near the rind. Using a julienne peeler, cut the papaya into long thin strips. Mix with the thinly sliced chili, spring onion and coriander.

In a small cup, mix the lime juice with the fish sauce. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and very carefully toss to combine.

Spoon the salad onto two small plates and cover with the chopped peanuts. Serve immediately or the fruit will become mushy.
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The Colour Project

Colour Red – Hung Liu – Rhubarb Tart

Megan Fizell — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 19:14:18 +0000

Hung Liu’s artistic production is a process of recollection – a symbolic excavation. Having weathered the re-education of artists vis-a-vis Mao’s Cultural Revolution and immigration to the U.S. in 1984, Hung Liu’s influences are richly transcultural. She is known as one of the very first Chinese artists to study within the U.S. and has since received numerous accolades for her dynamic work. Starting from anonymous photographs (often of unnamed Chinese prostitutes), Liu’s portrayals pair elements of tradition with contemporary critique. Vividly, her use of colour challenges her audiences’ emotive links to colour. In an interview she gave in 1995, Hung Liu refers to her vibrant use of colour, particularly red: “Red is an alarming color. We use red lights to warn people; to tell about danger and to use caution. In China, red is the color of the national flag. It is also the color of revolution; it suggests blood. Red also is used for celebration; it is festive and is used for such things as weddings, the Chinese New Year, and red banners. I like to work with layers of meaning.” (1)

Hung Liu, Yang, 2008

Quite literally layered, Yang, 2008, features a print of a prior work embedded in cast resin and superimposed with Liu’s signature use of historical Chinese motifs (here cherry blossoms) and thinned pigment dripped across the surface. Liu’s repetition of the dominant red background in the red of the woman’s crowning flowers and more intensely in her set lips, draws on the colour’s innumerable associations. Pairing a recipe to this painting requires a taste both strong and lingering – a rhubarb tart tinged with the spice of ginger and cayenne. Like the wavering paint drips, the straight lines of the recipe’s fresh rhubarb stalks melt into stringy red and pink ribbons. The bittersweet nature of the rhubarb paired with the delicately burnt molasses and speckled sesame seed crust recalls her subject’s strength of character and altogether tragic displacement in time – an otherwise lost history uncovered and commemorated by Hung Liu.

In parallel to Liu’s use of skills steeped in traditional technique and her constant reintroduction of layered meaning to her work, the classic rhubarb tart is brought full circle to its own origins. The rhubarb pie of Western origin meets the plant’s Chinese heritage in its combination with a sesame and buckwheat crust. Stemming from the buckwheat family, rhubarb has been used for centuries as a medicinal plant to cure a wide variety of ailments. It is this curative quality that perhaps best links the recipe with this work as it compliments Hung Liu’s desire to create memorial sites for lost memories – both celebrating and mourning their subject.

{Rhubarb Tart with Burnt Molasses & Sesame Seed Shells}

Burnt molasses and sesame seed shells:

2 tst butter
1 cup sesame seeds
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup buckwheat flakes
1/2 cup molasses
1 tsp cayenne

Begin by roasting the sesame seeds in a hot saucepan. They should crackle and pop. Stir quickly until they are browned and fragrant – not burnt. Turn down the heat to medium. Add butter, stirring until it melts. Mix in brown sugar, buckwheat, molasses and cayenne. Stir constantly as the mixture thickens – between 5-10 minutes. Spoon enough mixture into each cupcake form to roughly 1/3. When the mixture is cool enough to touch, yet still malleable, press along sides of the mold. Bake at 170 C for no more than 10 minutes watching closely to see that the sides do not fall. The crust will harden fully at room temperature. Let cool completely before filling.

Rhubarb filling:

150 g rhubarb, chopped
4 TB caster sugar
3 TB tapioca flour
3 TB lemon juice
1 thumb ginger, finely chopped

Mix together in sauce pan and cook until thick. Pour into hardened shells.
Let set and enjoy!

Cassandra Edlefsen Lasch is a Berlin-based art historian and artist advisor active within international contemporary art production and project realisation. Investigating collaboration is central to her work and all of her recipes are gluten-free.
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The Colour Project

Colour Red – Claude Monet – Steak Tartare

Megan Fizell — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:42:31 +0000

In the mid-16th century, Spain began importing a vibrant red pigment from the New World that was so highly sought after that the source was held as a national secret. The dye was extracted from the blood of a female cochineal, a wingless insect that lives upon the leaves of the prickly pear. The dye was so valued that in the late 18th century, a French spy by the name of Nicolas Joseph Thierry de Menonville, snuck into the Spanish territory and successively procured a living specimen. The cochineal insect is closely related to the Indo-European kermes bug. Kermes insects live upon the scarlet oak and the red dye they produce was the most expensive pigment in the middle ages and very valuable to the Romans. According to Victoria Finlay, author of Colour: travels through the paintbox, “for many cultures red is both death and life – a beautiful and terrible paradox.” The connotations this colour, often made from the blood of insects, is embodied in Claude Monet’s Still Life: Quarter of Beef. This painting of a dead animal is created – is given life – through the death of the cochineal insect; yet represents a food source that sustains life. The small canvas represents the cyclical and paradoxical nature of the colour red.

Claude Monet, Still Life: Quarter of Beef (Nature morte : le quartier de viande vers), c.1864
oil on canvas, 24 x 33 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

As a leading artist within the Impressionist movement, Claude Monet’s paintings are associated with dreamy landscapes and pastel colours. Before his redundant paintings of haystacks, churches and waterlilies, his work was closer in appearance to his contemporary, Gustav Courbet, whose Realist manner was concerned with the common ‘plebeian’ life. The cut of beef depicted in Monet’s Still Life: Quarter of Beef is an inexpensive and tough piece, typically consumed by the lower class. The garlic would be used to flavour the meal – perhaps in a stew – and the earthenware jug confirms the working-class nature of the tableau. To mimic the paradoxical nature of the colour red, the painting of a plebeian meal is paired with a quintessentially posh recipe for steak tartare. The dish was served in the early 20th century under the name of steak à l’Americane without the egg yolk (also left out of my recipe) and with a side of tartare sauce. Over time, the fare evolved to become an assemblage of raw, minced (not ground) beef, season and topped with a raw egg yolk. Typically the beef is marinated in citrus juice, a Mexican technique that begins to cook the meat and kill off any bacteria. Steak tartare can be served with a variety of accompaniments, a number of which are suggested below.

{Steak Tartare}

adapted from French by Damien Pignolet
serves 2

1 c lean rump, trimmed of sinew
½ lemon, juiced
few splashes of Tabasco sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
drizzle of olive oil
1 tsp lemon zest
1 TB chives
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp black pepper

garnishes:
¼ c cornichons
¼ c chopped parsley
3 TB capers packed in salt, rinsed
½ red onion
3 TB pickled onions
seeded mustard
anchovy fillets
horseradish crème
lemon wedges
toasted baguette slices rubbed with garlic

Finely chop the rump steak with a clean knife. Do not pass through a mincer otherwise the texture will be like mush. In a bowl, combine with the lemon juice, Tabasco, Worcestershire, olive oil, lemon zest, chives, salt and pepper. Place the marinated meat in a refrigerator to set for two hours.

Toast the baguette and rub each side with a sliced piece of garlic. Finely chop the garnishes and set out with the steak tartare formed into a small mound on each plate. Serve with the toast slices, squeeze of fresh lemon and garnish.

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