Artistic restaurant exploring sustainability
Installation: Artistic restaurant exploring sustainability
August 31, 2021
Video Presentation
This U.S.-Japan partnership creates an installation and performance-based work. The project explores sustainability through the lens of food and agriculture presented within an architectural installation serving as a temporary, experimental, and functional restaurant.
The ongoing pandemic forced the artists to make significant changes to their project, which eventually led them to re-examine the essence of the artistic experience they create while serving dishes. Their collaborative documentary short film “A SENSE OF PLACE” is now available on YouTube.
Artist
Jesse Schlesinger
A multidisciplinary visual artist working in sculpture, site-specific installation, drawing, and photography. Schlesinger’s work is fundamentally concerned with place: how the natural environment, architectural context and engagement, and historical precedent contribute to experience and understanding. His upbringing as a second-generation carpenter (with a focus on traditional craftsmanship) and involvement with a small farm have jointly influenced the philosophy of his work. He has exhibited in galleries and museums in the U.S. and Japan.
Collaborator
Masayo Funakoshi
While studying sculpture at Pratt Institute, Funakoshi was instead inspired by cooking and transferred to a culinary school in New York City. Funakoshi continued to learn cooking at one of New York City’s most esteemed kitchens, Blue Hill, and traveled to Europe and regions of Asia to further explore food culture. Her travels have taken her across the Pacific Ocean as chef for an Australian cruise ship, as well as chef for a long-established hotel in Bali. In May 2018, Masayo opened her own studio, tea salon, and private restaurant, Farmoon, in Kyoto.
