Bad Art Presents Let Them Eat Fake
Recently, a smörgåsbord flooded my Instagram feed and even though I was a few days late to the party there was still plenty on offer when I arrived because ‘Let Them Eat Fake’ was, in fact, “a dinner you cannot eat”.
Laid out like a chaotic buffet, this large group show was filled with foods made from ceramic, papier mâché, porcelain, resin, stoneware and other mixed-media. Meats, fish, veg and sweet treats were plentiful. Empty cups, stubbed out cigarettes and decorative sea shells occupied what little empty space was left between the offerings.
A huge chandelier of meat hung above the table, across which a giant carrot was draped like some kind of prized wild animal proudly displayed after the kill. It was like a Glen Baxter cartoon brought to life.
Like those large works, the majority fell firmly into the cheeky and quirky category. Some were overtly sexual. A few were so lifelike I honestly couldn’t tell if someone had simply nipped into their pantry and grabbed a few things to fill out the show. (NB: The cake in Image 10 was indeed a real one!)
This pop-up pot luck, which lasted only 5 days, was hosted by Bad Art Presents (@BadArtPresents) as a way to provide a more interactive, hands-on experience that you generally can’t get in a museum or white-cube style gallery where stern security guards and access barriers ensure a polite distance is kept between you and the art at all times.
There were no such social restrictions in place at this dinner party, but there were a lot of laughs, as well as some messy and silly/raunchy evening events. (Search the hashtag #LetTheEatFake on Instagram and you’ll see what I mean.)
Prior to this show I’d never heard of Bad Art Presents. It’s a curatorial project founded in 2016 by Anna Choutova (@AnnaChoutova1) who was on site during my visit and explained it as “my attempt of inserting some humour, vulgarity and fun into the contemporary art world. We've put on all-inflatable shows, touchable shows… and we're planning a destroyable exhibition!”
It’s optimal timing for these kinds of initiatives. The shuttering of so many businesses during the pandemic has led to cheap rent in prime locations from landlords eager to offset their losses until the wider economy recovers. Various organisations and non-profits have already capitalised on this, providing multiple options for artists to explore.
Bad Art is one of them, and ideal for the current climate specifically because it “exists as an inclusive space for artists who have struggled to integrate in the art world - for whatever reason. We often work with young talent, artists who are not 'commercially successful' or artists whose work is performative, transient and not exactly wall-hangable.”
As an art lover, I’m thrilled that London’s overabundance of art can now accommodate more experimental artists and pop-ups alongside the established heavy hitters. How long will it last? Who knows, but like a good meal I’ll try to savour it slowly.
As Anna says: “I love art that brings us back to our gut before we get to sterilize it with our minds.”
BONUS: Video clip
Please note that the final 12 seconds of the video contains “scenes of a sexual nature” — albeit in ceramic! The work, entitled “Makes It Taste Sweet” by Andrea Gomis (@deadratlove69) was simply too amusing not to include.
Let Them Eat Fake ran from 27 April - 01 May 2022 at The Bomb Factory (@thebombfactoryartfoundation)
Visit BadArtPresents.com or follow @BadArtPresents on Instagram for more info.