The 2.5 x 2.5 metre biscuit tin installation by Christine Turner is featured in the current curated exhibition Art + Food: Beyond the Still Life at Brenda May Gallery in Sydney. According to Turner, ”I have found that biscuit tins require a simple configuration when presented in artworks. Each tin provides a great deal of information of its own. Information about societal customs, the economy, consumerism and much more.” Most people, when viewing the work, circle the parameter recognising tins from their own mother’s and grandmother’s kitchens. The installation draws on people’s nostalgia for familiar things and a certain time or place. The recipe below, provided by the artist, is for an Anzac biscuit, a hard cookie made of rolled oats, coconut and golden syrup. Because of their long shelf-life, the cookies were often sent by the wives of soldiers to the men overseas; hence their name (ANZAC – Australian and New Zealand Army Corps).
Christine Turner, Lifescape, 2012, mixed media – biscuit tins,
250 x 250cm (dimensions variable), Courtesy the Artist and Brenda May Gallery, Sydney
