KNEAD

Art and Science aficionados know that Rome is THE city of international Academies. Every year several hundreds of artists and scholars come to spend some time in the Eternal city to study, reflect and produce. There are many occasions for fellows from different countries to meet, become friends, hang out together and even collaborate.

The case of Liza Dieckwisch and Laura White is unique, though. The German Academy has hosted fellows that work with food – several, actually. And Liza Dieckwisch, Rome Prize Fellow of the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo 2022/23 does cook, yes, and she has published a cookbook and works on a second book that includes recipes, yes. She has prepared meals as part of artistic interventions in various art contexts, yes. And so does Laura White, the Ampersand Foundation Fellow of the British Academy (British School at Rome) in 2022/23: she works with food, cooks, writes about her practice and creates expansive artistic food events.

However, there are plenty of food artists, to which this short description might apply.

What is so particular about Liza’s and Laura’s work that one is surprised to find two artists with such similar approaches at the same time in Rome and why would they need to work together?

Liza is a painter, Laura a sculptor and in a way, their artistic approaches are complementary.
It clicked between the two artists as soon as they got to know each other and their respective practices, and it didn’t take long for them to create a strong bond. They prepare food with a passion that involves the body including all the senses. Liza and Laura recall spending days without reciprocal obligations or goals together. They would go to one of the Roman farmers markets to explore the range of seasonal, some unknown and unfamiliar ingredients to take back to the studio to handle, document and cook, such as ordering from a butcher the entire innards of a sheep to investigate and build recipes around.  Once returned from the market they would work in the kitchen all day together experimenting collaboratively, almost self-forgetting until they could pass each other kitchen utensils or ingredients without speaking. They would work for hours, almost somnambulistic, like dancers. The enormous amounts of food were then shared amongst the co-fellows.

When it comes to the art that results from these cooking practices, though, the traces of Laura’s and Liza’s bodies are very different. Laura’s sculptural work bears marks of her hands and the actions she puts her material through, but her sculptures might remind the viewers of their own body or cuts of meat displayed at the butcher, or even other materials such as marble used to carve Baroque figures, such as the work of Bernini. Liza’s reference to the organic in her paintings start with the shape of the surface. She never works with rectangles; her pieces have neither stretchers nor frames. Furthermore, there is no distinction between a support and applied colours. The ground of her work is part of the image, which unfolds in organic shapes.

Most viewers will agree that the first things that hit you when seeing the work of Liza and Laura, is the range of shapes and colours both the artist’s use: Shapes and forms that are created using the transformative qualities of matter and colours, which gourmets generally would not be very attracted by intrigue both Liza and Laura. Their meals are red, pink, and yellow, and blue. The unexpected news is, that all these amazing shades Liza and Laura use stem from natural ingredients, there is no chemical food colouring involved, and the unexpected shapes are created by a material collaboration rather than preconceived planning. Nevertheless, Laura’s and Liza’s works both leave you with that ambiguous sensation of enticement and repulsion, of magnetism and rejection.

Liza and Laura thought Pastificio Cerere was the perfect context for their show, not only because of the elegant new exhibition space, but also because of the historical background. What could suit their subjects and practice more than a former pasta factory? It was obvious, that the two artists would concentrate on dough: Laura uses it as her material, Liza as her subject. Laura leaves her body prints; Liza shows the images of hands involved in kneading.

And they both agree in the simple but practical instructions Andrew Whitley gives in his bread cookbook from 2006 “Bread Matters”.

 Don’t worry about sticky hands.

Don’t add more flour until you’re sure it’s needed.

Wetter is better.

Try ‘air kneading’.

Use flour to clean your hands.

Sticky may be inconvenient but soft is good.

Cooking as well as art making for Laura and Liza means that your body almost becomes one with the food – and the art.

Julia Draganovic