Viral Confections is from a series of works, Sentimental Objects in Attempts to Befriend a Virus. The chocolates illustrate the protein structure of the hepatitis C virus.
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Would you like to befriend a virus?
Come to the opening reception of the Trans Exhibition on Saturday from 5:30-7:30 at the Kupfer Center.
Tea and chocolate viruses will be served. $3 donation for each hepatitis C truffle.
Physicians have struggled with the murky boundary between food and poison; food historians have written extensively about food identities. Reaching far beyond an audience of medical consumers and epicures, and further dissolving any distinction between them, Viral Confections challenges many traditional assumptions about the interactions between food and the body. On the surface, it suggests that a virus might well be appeased with chocolate—an indulgence normally for the body or mind. At the same time, the protein-modeled truffle hints at its own danger as a food that is essentially unhealthy but still essential. With this intriguing juxtaposition, Berrigan provokes a number of historical and contemporary questions about the identity of food and the purposes to which we employ it. She also provokes some rethinking of the nature of the virus itself, especially when it functions at once as a foreign intruder and component of personal identity.
You made some excellent points in that last post. I find this a really interesting subject. Another guy writes really well on the matter, can’t remember his name at the moment though.
Abby Shotwell is a Madison-based artist and homemaker who teaches at the Madison Children's Museum, Madison Public Library, and Madison Schools.
Alan Marcus is Director of the Centre for Screen Studies at the University of Manchester, UK.
Anna Campbell and Chele Isaac Anna Campbell is associate professor of sculpture at Grand Valley State University.
Chele Isaac is a graduate student in the Art Department at UW-Madison.
Jeff Fitzgerald is a Madison-based artist and founder of Revolution Cycles.
Jill Baker and Nelson Goranson Jill Baker is a graduate student at the University of Iowa Intermedia Program in the Department of Art. Nelson Goranson is a graduate student in the Education Department at the UW-Madison.
Jim Ferris is a poet and a professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the UW-Madison.
Jose Rodriguez is a graduate student in the Art Department at UW Madison.
Joyce Campbell is a Los Angeles based artist working in sculpture, film installations, and photography. She teaches at Scripps College and Claremont Graduate University.
Kate Hewson and Marina Kelly Kate Hewson is a Madison-based dancer and Arts Residency Coordinator at the UW-Madison.
Marina Kelly is a Madison based dancer and artist, and a social worker at Malcolm Shabazz City High School.
Nicole Gruter is a graduate student in the Art department at UW Madison.
Nikki Renee Anderson is a Chicago based artist and teaches ceramics in the Chicago area.
Phil Sayers and Esther Sayers Phil Sayers teaches Fine Art at Staffordshire University UK and is a transvestite artist specializing in feminine masquerade from historical sources. Esther Sayers is a key member of the Education Team at Tate Modern, London.
Robert Ladislas Derr is Assistant Professor of Photography at The Ohio State University.
Ryan Burghard recently finished his MFA at the UW-Madison.
Ryan Griffis is Assistant Professor of New Media at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Sally Grizzell Larson is a Philadelphia based photographer, filmmaker, and script-writer.
Sarah Kanouse and Nicholas Brown Sarah Kanouse is Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema and Photography at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where
Nicholas Brown is a graduate student in the Department of Landscape Architecture, History and Theory.
Stephanie Liner recently completed her MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Stephen Wetzel is a Milwaukee-based filmmaker and Education Coordinator at Mata Community Media in Milwaukee.
Terry Nauheim is a New York-based artist who teaches digital media, computer graphics, and interactive design in the New York City area.
The Art Club is a group of Madison 4th graders who have been meeting weekly with artist Abby Shotwell for the past three years. The members of the Art Club are: Leaf Anthony, Olive Earley, Gillian Gehri, Linnea Halsten, Sylvia Hecht, Isak Lund, Henry Shotwell, Isaiah Stefan, and Carina Vargas-Nunez
Would you like to befriend a virus?
Come to the opening reception of the Trans Exhibition on Saturday from 5:30-7:30 at the Kupfer Center.
Tea and chocolate viruses will be served. $3 donation for each hepatitis C truffle.
Posted by: Caitlin Berrigan | October 20, 2006 at 09:21 AM
Physicians have struggled with the murky boundary between food and poison; food historians have written extensively about food identities. Reaching far beyond an audience of medical consumers and epicures, and further dissolving any distinction between them, Viral Confections challenges many traditional assumptions about the interactions between food and the body. On the surface, it suggests that a virus might well be appeased with chocolate—an indulgence normally for the body or mind. At the same time, the protein-modeled truffle hints at its own danger as a food that is essentially unhealthy but still essential. With this intriguing juxtaposition, Berrigan provokes a number of historical and contemporary questions about the identity of food and the purposes to which we employ it. She also provokes some rethinking of the nature of the virus itself, especially when it functions at once as a foreign intruder and component of personal identity.
Posted by: frederick gibbs | October 22, 2006 at 01:51 PM
You made some excellent points in that last post. I find this a really interesting subject. Another guy writes really well on the matter, can’t remember his name at the moment though.
Posted by: law of attraction book | December 02, 2007 at 09:54 PM
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Posted by: law of attraction | May 09, 2008 at 12:18 AM
is their a cure for this virus?.this is scary
Posted by: job online | October 06, 2011 at 12:04 PM