Imagining food: art, aesthetics and design

In a physiological sense, food sustains life. For all organisms, humans included, the 'circle of life' includes some form of food, and without it, the organism will not survive. However, for humans this basic view of food has long since become an insufficient explanation of all that we now think and feel when we hear the word 'food'.

Imagining food: art, aesthetics and design deliberately posited an international stance, placed within a Tasmanian context-Tasmania is, after all, part of the global community. Themes addressed by the exhibition included: global issues (sustainable use of global resources; famine and hunger in developing nations; biosecurity/food security); social and health policy (gluten and fructose intolerance; eating disorders; childhood obesity, health education); economic issues (ownership of the means of production; ownership of the land and the firms that make our food; the role of agriculture in our economy); 'modern' food (organic production; vegetarian 'options'; farmer's markets; paddock to plate; paleo diets); human behaviour (food as a source of pleasure/hedonism; indigenous food; rituals associated with food; food tourism).