Our project examines the relationship between social eating and loneliness.
Due to the well-established research and theory of this subject area, we were interested in examining the aspects of this relationship that are less prevalent. As opposed to the actual act of eating and the comfort that can be felt from it, our project aimed to reflect upon the nuances that can be drawn from the experience of communal eating and how they can imagery and aesthetics can convey the same level of meaning and emotion.
The project explores how a sense of comfort, connection and nostalgia can be evoked by objects and materials that are associated with social eating through relational aesthetics, as opposed to the actual act of eating. The work attempts to alter people’s perception of these objects by changing their materiality. Through this process, it transfigures their appearance from being something that was previously insignificant, into a kind of artefact with a more inherent value and importance.
The nonchalant event of eating and socialising every day means that we can often overlook this shared experience and the vast number of health benefits that it can bring us, both mentally, physically and socially. The underlying concept of these works is for them to act as a kind of visual metaphor for looking at social eating with a heightened sense of gratification and value, not as something meaningless or disposable.
