CANvas Food Drive
Pyramid of collected CANS, 2021
People who were already going to the pantries have grown more reliant on them. – The New York Times
Instead of spending $$$ on art supplies I purchased CANs of food and other nonperishable foods and turned them into an art installation. Nonperishabl foods were accepted at the gallery and at the end of the show all the foods collected were delivered to Long Island Cares and The Stony Brook Food Pantry.
The goal was to bring awareness and food to where it’s needed. I created labels for the donated cans featuring British Food slang. There is a set of 44 different British food expression labels such as; Bubble & Squeak, fairy cake, scotch egg. The labels wrap around a can of food. The cans are then stacked and displayed in the gallery, or public space, on restaurant tables and shelves.
Viewers are invited to make a food donation of nonperishable foods canned food (the list of foods accepted will be displayed). They then select a British food label (All 44 labels displayed on a workstation), and wrap the label around their donated cans. In the final step they place their newly wrapped cans with it’s British label on the stacked displays along with the other cans. A Covid friendly setup.
As an artists gesture I created some signed prints on watercolor paper of the labels and food givers are welcome to take one.
British food CAN Labels
Wall Plates (Installation view), 2021
Shelves (Installation View), 2021
Poster, 2021
Labels (Installation View), 2021
Stacked (Installation View), 2021