*First
published on ArtScape in U entertainment section
of the Pasadena
Star-News on Friday, March 7, 2003. The following is from online
version which was available at --
http://u.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,214%7E24510%7E1226310,00.html
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The marriage of food and art is hardly new. But a trio of USC art graduates, exhibiting their work at Bistro 1000, have
offered unique visions of food and vessels and the eating customs of differing cultures.
Photographer Tomo Isoyama, painter Alison Kuo and ceramist Stanton Hunter have joined together for this look at the
culture of consuming food and the art that ensues.
Isoyama, who graduated from USC in 2000 with a master's degree of fine art in photography and
digital imaging, said that he is interested in the diverse cultural fabric of the greater Los Angeles area.
Not
being from Los Angeles, said this native of Japan, "I enjoy looking
at the city from the outsider's point of view. My main interest
is
to see what kind
of people, which cultural groups, go to specific Los Angeles
restaurants."
So he put together a series, photographing customers eating and relaxing at specifically ethnic
restaurants. People consuming food in comforting spots. Almost all the customers pictured in each of
nine color photographs belong to one specific ethnic group, with the exception of one person -- the outsider.
Places Isoyama visited include a vegetarian restaurant in the little India section of Artesia, a
Korean tofu restaurant in L.A.'s Koreatown, a Chinese dim-sum restaurant in Alhambra and a Chinese vegetarian restaurant in
Monterey Park.
Equipped with his 35mm camera, Isoyama dined and captured others dining, carefully composing each
shot, taking into consideration perspective, angle and directional lines. Back in the studio, he
digitally scanned and manipulated the images, working to accent certain colors and details. The
results were placed on a CD-ROM, then taken to a photo lab for printing on archival photo paper, using the lab's latest
high-tech digital equipment.
The results are a thought-provoking look into the seeming need for people to congregate in
comforting surroundings. But Isoyama feels different, and wanted to visit the many ethnic restaurants, to try different
foods.
"I often times seek out an enjoy being an outsider in certain situations, especially in restaurants," he
said.
Kuo, who graduated from USC in 2002 with a master's of fine art degree in painting and drawing,
approaches cultural differences from another viewpoint. She looks at deeply engrained cultural biases
and stereotypes, specifically in food choices, that crop up in society. People often presuppose an activity outside of
their own culture as being strange and abnormal, she said.
She is interested in these biases, and has created a series of watercolor paintings, on paper, each
showing two divergent practices and preferences based on cultural influences. For instance, one
cultural group thinks nothing of dining on the uterus of a pig while another group is happy downing
waffles drowned in butter and syrup. Each might look askance at the other. Innards are bad, waffles are good. Or visa
versa, depending on where you are coming from.
And Kuo, whose heritage is Chinese but who grew up in Texas, is not afraid to confront other
cultural behaviors and differences, such as the treatment of extended families or, more simply, the use of different
utensils and domestic objects, even chairs.
She believes cultural conditioning to be a gradual process, and so finds the medium of watercolor
to be well suited for executing the idea of gradual conditioning based, as it is, on the application of multiple layers of
paint. It makes for though-provoking art.
Hunter's work, on the other hand, is all about art for art's sake. He's been around a little
longer, having worked in clay for more than 18 years. A multifaceted man, before earning his master's
of fine art degree from USC in 2000, Hunter garnered degrees in psychology and music. He now teaches
beginning and advanced ceramics at Scripps College, Claremont, and his work is represented in fine art collections around
the country.
That said, the maturity of this Sierra Madre ceramist makes for a fine fit with the two younger artists.
The
architectural vessels on display, said Hunter, are variations
on a theme: "When
you go out to eat in L.A., you are consuming the decor and the
architecture
as much as the food."
So for the Bistro 1000 show, Hunter said, he decided to play with an architectural theme, exploring
the visual connections between buildings for people and vessels for food. The result is a
comprehensive collection of bowls, plates, vases, platters, cups and saucers and teapots. But these
are not ordinary utensils. Hunter has a way with clay and creates artful designs, wonderful glazes and
intriguing colors. And with the addition of toothpick scaffolding, sugar cube and stir-stick building cranes, he has added
just the right amount of levity to the recipe.
The site of the exhibition is important, as well. Bistro 1000 is unique -- a fine restaurant in a
campus setting. French chef Laurent Quenioux, who studied in the south of France and was pastry chef
at Paris' acclaimed Maxim's before he adopted Southern California as his home, has created an eclectic menu.
Dishes range from an Asian seafood wrap with crab meat, calamari and rock shrimp to poached salmon
served on a bed of julienne vegetables in a lime-basil sauce. And of course frites. Real French fries.
For dessert he offers a classic creme brulee or chocolate mousse, as well as chocolate cake and cheesecake.
Art and food. Bon appetit!
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Priscilla Fleming Vayda is a free-lance writer based in Los Angeles. Write to her in care of the
San Gabriel Valley Newspapers, Features Department, 1210 N. Azusa Canyon Road, West Covina, CA 91790, or by e-mail at
priscilla.vayda@worldnet.att.net.