Eat the Problem is a surrealist compendium of food and art from Mona. Comprising a series of ‘recipes’ using invasive species—both real and surreal—focusing on transforming flaw into feature.
Conceived and curated by Kirsha Kaechele, Eat the Problem is an artwork in the form of a decadent, 544-page tome. It features the contributions of artists whose work is in Mona’s permanent collection, as well as noted chefs, writers, scientists and philosophers from around the world. Along with meditations on eating, destroying, or transforming invasive species into art, Eat the Problem includes recipes for life in the form of poetry, essays, scatological musings and interviews.
Eat the Problem features recipes ranging from Shannon Bennett’s Rabbit with Smoked Potato and Onion to making Real Rabbit Glue; Ritual Rites for a Lover using magic mushrooms by Toni Rands to the short essay Jesus and the Sacred Mushroom by Scott Mowry.
Tetsuya Wakuda offers a delectably achievable Venison Tataki with Root Vegetables, and Fergus Drennan provides a recipe for Fox Tikka Masala that wouldn’t look out of place on a good pub menu. Mona’s head chef Vince Trim has, with Kaechele, created a festive dish of ancient Roman proportions: Whole Roasted Camel stuffed with a large goat and 30 pheasants.
Louise Riley’s bomber jacket made from Japanese knotweed provides a new way ‘to wear the enemy—to say “fuck you”, and Kaechele goes Pythoning in Florida with Omar Gomez.
With a surrealist ability to make the familiar uncanny, Eat the Problem holds up a funhouse mirror that will have readers reconsidering how we view pressing social, environmental and cultural issues.
Kirsha Kaechele says: “This book is a surreal and appetising way to reimagine what we think of as invasive. It celebrates an abundance of pests, and the art of transforming shit into gold. Eat the Problem is an exercise in systems based thinking, solving multiple problems at once with stylish and delicious results.”
Contributors include James Turrell, Marina Abramović, Andoni Luis Aduriz of Mugaritz, Germaine Greer, Heston Blumenthal, Mike Parr, Pablo Picasso, Enrique Olvera of Pujol, Laurie Anderson, Tetsuya Wakuda of Tetsuya’s, Tim Minchin, Jorge Vallejo of Quintonil,
Peter Gilmore of Quay, Yves Klein, George Monbiot, Seth Shostak, Tim Low, Matthew Barney, Timothy Morton, Kevin Kelly, Salvador Dalí and many more.
In April 2019, Mona will also launch an Eat the Problem exhibition. Featuring a monumental vibraphone table, performance art and ritualistic eating implements, the exhibition explores the act and art of transformation. It will be accompanied by a series of feast events.
Eat the Problem ($277.77, Mona Publications) is on sale from 25 March. The Eat the Problem exhibition runs at Mona from 13 April until 2 September.
More: https://mona.net.au/eat-the-problem
