The Uncanny Canteen, Primary, Nottingham

Back in 1932 Filippo Tommasso Marinetti published a book entitled ‘The Futuristic Cook Book’ – Part manifesto, part artistic joke, but a provocative work about art disguised as an easy-to-read cookbook. Cross the Futuristic Cook Book with the anticipation of entering Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory (in the nicest possible sense) and that may go some way to explaining the Uncanny Canteen.
A Mysterious Gourmet Tour of the art studio Primary, The Uncanny Canteen was an exclusive fundraising event to help maintain the Grade II listed building which houses the Primary art studio and develop their programme.

Officially opened in March 2012, Primary was set up by Nottingham Studios Ltd, a not-for-profit organisation. With support from Nottingham City Council, Arts Council England and Foyle Foundation, Primary has transformed an impressive disused school building into a new cultural resource.  Now offering dedicated artists’ studios for thirty selected artists where they, and the public can share, experiment and learn about contemporary visual art through an ambitious programme of events within studios alongside more flexible spaces, both within and outside the building and on Thursday 26th Febuary, Primary was transformed for one night only for a magical evening of food, art and exploration.

Resident cook, food consultant and artisan baker, Kimberley Bell designed a banquet of extraordinary courses in collaboration with Primary artists, taking the diner on a tour of intriguing spaces and places.  A sensory adventure which combined food, art, music and the unexpected. Kimberley also runs the ‘Small Food Bakery‘ a craft bakery based at Primary that specialises in naturally leavened bread, or sour dough made slowly by hand.

As we entered the old school building on the corner of Seely Road and Ilkeston Road, we were greeted by artist Becky Beinhart and introduced to Course 1 – Khlebosolny.  Sour dough and salt – Khlebosolny is a ritual to welcome you across the threshold, into the alternate world of the Uncanny Canteen.  Based on an Eastern European tradition, the bread symbolises hospitality and friendship and the salt symbolises preservation and longevity. We were given chunks of lovely fresh sour dough  baked by Kimberley to sprinkle or dip into sea salt.

Next we’re guided into the Truth and Lies ‘Pop up Bar’  A pay bar with specially selected drinks by Joshua Grimshaw of Harts Restaurant including alcoholic and non alcoholic Cocktails, an extra Pale Ale from Nottingham Brewery, local white wines and a ‘not so local’ wine. There was also music by Ex-Friendly.

From the bar we were led to Course 2 – The Black Square. Constructivist inspired Vodka Cocktails in the studio with artist Yelena Popova. The Cocktails were created to provide vitamins, minerals and spirits to keep you going all evening!  Russian born Yelena welcomed guests around a black square table. Yelena sees her painting as a physical practice that requires a sound mind in a sound body. The cocktails had a lovely fruity flavour with the obvious kick of vodka. We make our way back down the stairs slightly less steady on our feet to await the next course.

Course 3 – Syrinx. 71% Organic dark chocolate, Grenada Chocolate Company. 39% Milk with lemon oil and sea salt, Amelia Rope Chocolate. Performance and tasting by musician and artist Rebecca Lee. Debussy composed the music played for Gabriel Mourey’s play Psyche. Syrinx being the chaste object of the god Pan’s lustful desires, but escaped his grip and was transformed into reeds by water Nymphs. Upon entering the studio we were given a piece of the dark chocolate which we were told to let melt on our tongue The incredible beautifully rich Chocolate, like Syrinx, melted away as soon as we start eating. A second piece, the milk chocolate was passed to as the music played.

Course 4 – The Human Canapé – A performance by Simon Raven. Cheese and Pineapple, stuffed olives.  Looking slightly cyber man-esque, with his lunar head wrapped in tin foil, pierced with Cocktail sticks, The Human Canapé offered a range of 1970’s canapés to guests. The course is inspired by scandal surrounding Marina Abramovic’s presentation at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Arts Gala in 2011, at which actors were hired at minimum wage to re-perform seminal performance works as table as centre pieces. Surreal yet so memorable. Never before have I eaten canapés from a mans head to then place my used stick in his open hands. I’ll never look at Mums Christmas buffet in the same way.

Course 5 –  A private view at TG. Nettle crisp bread, unpasteurised cows cheese and red chilli.  Directors Tom Godfrey and Josh Lockwood greeted us with a canapé of lovely thin nettle crisp bread and introduced us to TG and the latest exhibition in their occasional table program.

 

Evoking all sorts of emotions was Course 6 – Eggs, heads and dust -An edible installation in the studio with Nadim Chaudry. Hens pullet Eggs, perfectly boiled, served with powdered vegetables, ground nuts, spices, herbs and infused oils.  Nadeem greeted us and explained how we were to build our own dish and colour pallet of art. Taking inspiration from the many animals heads and skulls he uses in his work, Nadeem Chaudry’s course was a brightly coloured affair combining a variety of worldly flavours and textures. On our paper plate, as we moved around his studio, we placed various coloured powdered vegetables, ground nuts, spices, herbs and infused oils. We were then told to crack open our boiled egg on a glass topped table, inside which were chickens heads. Another surreal, thought provoking experience which combined the flavours of the food and the art created on your plate with the swirl of colours mimicking an artists pallet. The abandoned egg shells over the chickens heads added another, perhaps uncomfortable element to the piece.

We were seated in the hall for Course 7 – Salad – LIVE! On screen and In-mouth. Performed by Frank Abbott.
Abbot part cookery demo, part slapstick routine showed us:
THE SPIRALISER. Paderno Spiral Vegetable Slicer – carrots, potatoes and turnip.
THE TWISTER. Spirelli Spiral Vegetable Slicer – Beetroot & mooli.
THE CHOPPER. Susi-Matic Food Chopper – Herbs.
THE PERLER, CORER, SLICER. Coline Apple Processor – Curly Apples.
Using a variety of historic and contemporary chopping and slicing devices, combined with a range of surveillance technology and home video equipment. Frank Abbot prepared a number of salads LIVE! The chopping and mixing of the salads combines with the chopping and mixing of the video to create a heady disco mix to eat by.

Course 8 – A portrait of the Blackbrook Longhorns with Georgina Barney.

Longhorn beef is said to be the best beef for its flavour and tenderness. Over a period of nearly two years Primary Artist Georgina Barney visited a prize winning herd of pedigree Longhorn cattle, drawing the Blackbrook Longhorn herd at home and following them with their breeders throughout a season of livestock shows. The Uncanny Canteen  featured images from this body of work to the rear of the hall. Firstly we were served up  a delicious longhorn broth, bread, dripping, followed by Slow Roasted brisket and air dried sirloin.
Longhorn are a living homage to breeder Robert Bakewell whose work helped to usher in modern food production through selective breeding.

Being a dessert lover, I adored Course 9 – Geometric Dessert Trolley – A selection of cakes and deserts inspired by the graphic designs of ‘Lane‘ (Sardines, Circles and Swimming)  Designed by Joff and Ollie, ‘Lane‘ is a range of home interior products that are inspired by British graphic design heritage. Featuring prints, lampshades, stationery and textiles. The ‘Lane‘ inspired desserts included a gorgeous Rose & liquorice battenburg, pear and lemon jelly with a beautiful blueberry and strawberry panacotta.

After dinner followed Course 10 –Coffee and a Reading of Robert Holcome’s tarot cards in the Studio with Wayne Burrows. The Holcombe Tarot (c1971 – 1975) uses the fiction of a Tarot pack made by a fictional Britsh artist to explore ideas of meaning and randomness in a series of 78 collages that occasionally overlap traditional Tarot symbolism, but mostly aim to remain ambiguous and open to multiple interpretations. My future seemed to just involve wine. No change there then!

Our final course was  ‘A Seance with the Green Fairy‘ Absinthe in the Studio with Simon Withers.
‘The room is full of painted anti-persons; take in the substances on the table…at this instant pharmakeia emerges…an evocation of the Green Fairy or Leslie Sarony?’ with other diners we stood in a darkened room around a table laid out for a seance, as we became aware of movement behind the screens around us as we tucked into home-made absinthe fondant creams, absinthe fudge and absinthe Turkish Delight.

Simon describes his work accordingly: My work is seldom at rest; I relentlessly juggle ideas. There are common theses to be found. I am in three places at once, the present, the past and in the future (The three of the perfect pair)

Food, similarly to art is down to a matter of taste. We all like different things, we all have different tastes. We may not understand the work that has gone into a dish, in the same way we may not always understand the thought process behind an artists work, but if its memorable or thought provoking then it’s done it’s job. The Uncanny Canteen was a fabulous marriage of food and art, with the two working perfectly side by side. Even if you didn’t fully grasp all of it, it’s open to your own interpretation and it was certainly some of the most fun we’ve ever had at the dinner table.

Tickets were £40 pp and we paid in full for our own tickets. Views are our own.

Main images as credited were provided for free by James Gardiner – jamesgardiner.co.uk/contact/

For more information on Primary and future events visit: www.weareprimary.org/

By Tanya Raybould