On the occasion of the Armory Show week in March and a panel discussion at Independent art fair VernissageTV met with New York based artist Jennifer Rubell to talk about her large-scale food projects, which are a hybrid of performance art, installation art, and happenings.

For many people, one of the highlights during Art Basel Miami Beach week is the breakfast at the Rubell Family Collection. Each year, since 2001, Jennifer Rubell creates a food installation for that event in the courtyard of the Rubell Family Collection in Miami. Last year, Jennifer Rubell’s project titled “Old-Fashioned” consisted of 1’521 doughnuts hanging on a free-standing wall; in 2008, a mountain of bananas and a large field of different cereals were waiting to be eaten away (American Morning); and in 2007 she presented Drive Thru, featuring 2’000 hard-boiled eggs with a pile of latex gloves nearby to pick them up. Other projects include Creation, for the New York performance-art festival Performa 09; and Reconciliation, at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.. On March 22, Jennifer Rubell, will present Icons, an interactive food journey through the Brooklyn Museum including drinking paintings, suspended melting cheese heads, and more.

In the first part of the interview, Jennifer Rubell talks about when and how she started with her installations and the creation process of her works. In the second part that will be published tomorrow, she talks about the fascination of food and future projects.

Interview with Jennifer Rubell at Independent, New York. March 6, 2010.

PS: See also the panel discussion “On Gluttony” at Independent that VernissageTV has documented. Click here.

> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.