Category Archives: Process of Food

Examining Our Performance.

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The process of creating this performance has lead me down many research avenues, some that I was familiar with and some that I have never experienced before. While our performance was intended to explore the relationship between the feeder/gainer fetishes, I found that it actually examined a lot more than that.

It examined food and social convention, as well as food and each individuals relationship with it. It looked at the female body and perceptions of the female form within our westernised society. It explored greed and over indulgence at the risk of physical and mental health. However for me our perception of and indeed naivety about personal levels of control, and our accidental but overt feminist stance on the subject of food as a whole were the topics that stood out the most.

As an all female group who fit the same demographic, our performance explored our topic from a very niche view point. We therefore presented the piece from a very narrow perspective that complimented our thoughts and ideas. We explored our opinions of food as the primary opinion of food and the feeder/gainer phenomenon. This could be seen in the way the gainers dressed to represent the various ways in which we related ourselves to food and social perception. On top of this, in buying, preparing and presenting the food the  feeders cohered to the social stereotype of women who are “still wedded to the notion that “good” women are defined by a clean house and abundant home-cooked meals” (Avakian and Haber, 2006, p. 9).

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Photo by Lizzy Hayes and Lauren Watson, 2013

Avakian and Haber also state that in making the food women enjoy the “love, favors, good behavior and the power that comes from being needed” (Avakian and Haber, 2006, p. 8). While in many feeder gainer relationships it is the man who takes on the role  of feeder for the woman, this statement can be assimilated to both genders. Which brings me to my next and final point.
How much would have changed had even one performer had been male? The answer is simple. Everything.

Works Cited

Allen, P., Sachs, C (2007) “Women and food chains: The gendered politics of food.” International Journal of Sociology of Food and Agriculture 15.1.

Haber, B., Avakian, A V (2006) “Feminist Food Studies: A Brief History.” In From Betty Crocker to Feminist Food Studies: Critical Perspectives on Women and Food, Arlene Avakian and Barbera Haber (eds.) Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press.

 

 

Sick to the Stomach.

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The Performance

Having thought about it for weeks, and being nervous about it for days, I was surprised at how calm I felt just before the performance. I even found a small part of myself wishing that I could eat some of the food that I had so lovingly made for my gainer as I was setting it out on the table. I can safely say that my feelings toward the food were very much changed two hours later as it sat, mixed up, cold and congealed on the now less than attractively adorned table.

The performance started at 7 30pm on Wednesday the 11th of December, with the three gainers bound to their chairs with materials that related to their outfit. My feeder, Lauren, was tied by napkins. My self and the other two feeders stood beside our feeder, straight faced, plate in hand.

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Photo by Darren Page, 2013

What was going on in my head was a far less calm image. What would I feed her first? Should it be sweet or savoury? Dry or sloppy? Should I use a spoon, a fork or my hands? Decision time! I chose curry, which was of course savoury and sloppy and I fed it to her with a fork. I imediatley felt very uncomfortable about the whole situation. Within seconds I had spilt curry down her dress and I wanted to clean it up. The fork hit her teeth and I wanted to apologise. I finished feeding her the plate of food and I felt compelled to ask her if she would like any more, or wanted anything else. I went to the food table and I put chocolate in a bowl and I fed it to her with my hands. I went back to the food table and I picked up pizza and crisps. Back and forth picking up different foods, savoury and sweet, what ever took my fancy. But I wanted so badly to adhere to the social conventions that I have been brought up to respect and conform to. I found myself agreeing with Mary Douglas when she states that “the consumption of food is a ritual activity” (Lupton, 1996, p.9), and I was altering that ritual. The simple act of mixing savoury and sweet foods instead of having them separate, in set portions of a planned meal seemed almost anarchic. I was neglecting the social structure that is in place to “create[s] order out of potential disorder” (Lupton, 1996, p. 9).

The Performance

Photo by Lizzy Hayes, 2013

The extent of the disorder stopped being an internal thought, and became the focus of our piece after one hour, when Abbi, one of the gainers was sick.  Fighting to keep my face expressionless as had previously been planned I found that the situation, (which we had considered as a possibility, not a likelyhood) was dealt with quickly and effectively, but it was still a situation out of my hands. It was then I realized that I had far less control than I thought I did. I had control over what I was wearing and what my gainer was eating. That was it. I did not have control over how she felt. I did not have control over how I felt. I did not have control over the audience and their reactions. Considering that I had been worried about exploiting my control, I felt naïve to have thought that I would have any more control than any one else in the room. Because even though the gainers were tied to a chair and being force fed food, it was not up to us, or them whether the food stayed down or not, because as Scheer suggests, “The body’s capacities to endure certain forms of experience are not incidental…but are curatorially and compositionally problematic…” (Scheer, 2012, p. 2). Abbi’s body had passed it’s capacity and rejected the food.
But as the saying goes, the show must go on! Well in fact, it didn’t have to go on at all. Abbi could have stopped eating. But even though she chose to keep eating, soon after, the performance was stopped earlier than scheduled due to ethical reasons.

Works Cited

Lupton, M (1996) Food, the Body and the Self. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Scheer, E (2012) Introduction. The end of spatiality or the meaning of duration. Performance Research 17.5.

And for dessert…

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Our final performance: three feeders, three gainers and two hours to eat as much as individually possible. 11th December 2013

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The performance: Taken by Darren Page 11/12/13

Due to the result of the drawing of straws, for the performance I was given the role of feeder, much to my relief. In the lead up to the performance we filmed various sequences of the three feeders in a supermarket buying the food which would be consumed and consequently the cooking and preparation.

 

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Preparation of food: Taken by Kirsty Taylor 10/12/13

It was important for this footage to be part of our performance so the audience could see our process and how the food had got to the table. We set up our performance space as it was for our work in progress with the addition of lighting and video footage set behind the gainers. This meant they could not see what had been put into the food they were about to consume reflecting the gainer/feeder fetish in which the feeder could be in control of what went into the food they can eat. The control of the feeders continued as we tied our gainer to the chair using an item associated with the outfit they are wearing. My gainer, Abbi, wore gym clothing and so she was tied to the chair using socks.

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Gainer and feeder: Taken by Jess Jarvis 11/12/13

After we had laid the table and reheated all the hot food our performance could begin. The hot food added an important sense to the performance and allowed the audience to have some direct connection to the piece, the sense of smell, “Smell is said to be the most direct route to memory, emotions, mate choice and the immune system” (Di Benedetto, 2010, p93). By placing the food in close proximity to the audience, not only could they see exactly what was being eaten but can experience the food through smells thereby creating thoughts and feelings as Di Benedetto suggests, “Taste, like smell, can evoke memories that are laden with emotional qualities” (2010, p114). Consequently each audience member can create an individual personal response.

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Display of food: Taken by Kirsty Taylor 11/12/13

To heighten the control we were aiming for, the three feeders held a neutral facial expression whilst the gainers reacted naturally to the task they were completing which was received positively by the audience as they were real, honest reactions. Because the performance was of a nature which couldn’t be rehearsed, it was a task trying to keep a straight face whilst deciding what food I should feed to Abbi. I was tentative at first deciding how much to put on the plate and what combination of food I should use, but gradually I became more confident and sure of what to do. It also became more clear which food my gainer preferred over others.  As the performance went on, it became clear it was going to be a much harder task than anticipated. The physical struggle of the gainers and the mental guilt of the feeders increased dramatically and reached a climax when Abbi had to be sick. This was a shock for us all; although sick bags were in place we never expected they would be used as we didn’t think it would get to that point. I tried my hardest to remain in control of the situation despite the tidal wave of emotions; I felt panicky, guilty and full of concern yet still had the overbearing apprehension of keeping the performance going and completing my task as feeder. Although we never focused on the audience and made a deliberate choice not to make eye contact, it was at that point some members of the audience had to leave, clearly uncomfortable with what had just happened. Unexpectedly, our performance was cut short and stopped forty-five minutes before the expected finish.

Although it was not planned, we were all relieved the performance was over. We were all exhausted; we had pushed our bodies to the limits of what we could have handled either mentally or physically. The performance may not have ended how we anticipated, but we were all proud of the effort we had put into both the process and final piece.

Works Cited

Di Benedetto, Stephen (2010) The Provocation of the Senses in Contemporary Theatre UK:Routledge

A La Carte.

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Mains

Homemade Double Cheese Lasagne
Homemade Double Cheese Macaroni and Cheese
Homemade Chicken Tikka Curry
Chips
Pilau Rice
Homemade Mashed Potato
Meat Feast Pizza
Sausage and Mash Ready Meal
Gravy

Deserts

Homemade Brownies
Homemade Chocolate Cake
Homemade Cup Cakes
Tea Cakes
Strawberry Jelly
Vanilla Custard
Strawberry Angel Delight
Jam Dohnuts
Lemon and Custard Dohnuts
Chocolate Fingers
Chocolate Bars
Chocolate Buttons-White and Milk
Chuppa-Chup Lollypops
Double Cream

Drinks

Orange Juice (from concentrate)
Pepsi Cola

The Performance

Photo by Lizzy Hayes, 2013

I Got The Power!

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On Thursday we drew straws to decide which of us would be the feeders and which of us would be the eaters or gainers. The idea behind the drawing of the straws was control. We wanted who ever ended up eating to have had as little control over this decision as possible, to correlate with the feeder/gainer relationship in which the feeder has complete control over the gainers food intake.

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Photo by Lauren Watson, 2013

Having said in a previous post that I was not particularly comfortable with the ‘gainer’ side of the relationship it was no big surprise how relieved I was to draw the long straw and become a feeder.

(LaurenWithTheDramaTattoo, 2013)

I do not expect our performance to be easy for anyone, in fact I expect it will push each and every member of our group mentally. For me I imagine the main challenge to be the control: will I become used to the level of control I have? Will I end up liking the control? Would it be wrong for me to like the control?

Each feeder then chose a “gainer” to feed during the performance. I chose Lauren Watson. From that moment on she was my gainer-the person I will have control of during the performance.

The next step for me as a feeder is deciding what food to buy and make for the gainers. With butter, cheese, chocolate and pleanty of carbohydrates in mind me, Kirsty T, and Jess made our way to Morrisons supermarket to buy our food. We decided to video record this experience, as well as the process of us making the food so that it could be played behind the performers on the day of the performance. The idea behind this was to show the audience the extent to which we, as feeders, had control over what they gainers were being fed. Shopping bags full, we left Morrisons, actually quite excited to cook our food!

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Photo by Tom Baines, 2013

Works Cited

(LaurenWithTheDramaTattoo (2013) Feeder Contemporary Experimental: Drawing Straws [Online Video] Available from http://youtu.be/mdqz0-Dl2IA [Accessed 9 December 2013].