Small Pond Trading Cards, Part 3

Here's the continuation of our "trading card" series celebrating
and looking back at the first six years of Small Pond Arts.

Banner by Leanne Shea Rhem

Installation by Georga Ryan

SEE PART 1

SEE PART 2

SEE PART 4

Grave Robber

In July 2012 we held our second annual Cornography, a festival of art on the theme of food.

The afternoon included A Funeral for Bad Food, detailed in an earlier blog post.

Are you curious about what food our audience members wanted to put six feet under? Well, I was too, so I dug up all those little coffins. Call me a grave robber if you will, but I couldn't resist. 

Here's what they said (spelling intact!):

- Chicken fingers

- Bottled sauce (had a picture of skull and crossbones)

- Trans fats

- Fast food

- The sardines my neighbour smokes

- Candy

- Onion

- Jelly beans

- Monsanto corn

- Flesh of animals... cute or otherwise

- Peel chopped boiled potatoes

- Unagi

- Salad 

- Potatoes

- A & W fast food

- Brussel sprouts

- Cheese strings and yogurt tubes

- Brocili, brustles sprouts, green beans

- Bologna

- Coca Cola

- Catchya later, ketchup!

- Mushrooms

- Snickers

- All GMO's

- GMO soya

- White bread

- RIP chips

- I wish I wish I never heard of chips!!!

- Chicken McNuggets

- Factory-farmed cows

- Ban Duncan Hines - put some effort into scratch

- Cheese

- Brocili

- Wheat

- Macaroni infused deli meat

- Kraft Dinner

I love the diversity in what people wrote! Everything from the obvious evils concocted by our corporate overlords, to the naughty snacks we struggle to resist, to children's loathing of vegetables. It's a beautiful thing to see people of all ages embracing the opportunity to express their ideas and opinions.

What food would you banish if you could have things your way?

Cornography – The Second Popping

We’re still basking in the glow of the second annual Cornography, which took place this past Sunday at Small Pond Arts. Cornography is an art festival on the theme of “our twisted relationship with food” which the audience discovers as they are led from location to location around our farm.

The afternoon started off with a Punch & Judy show, performed by yours truly, wherein the devilish Punch throws his baby out the window while the missus is at the farmer’s market. ("What, you haven't seen a bit of good old-fashioned violence before?")

Milé, dressed as a chef, then led the audience back to the barn, where they were greeted by Reverend Rick Zimmerman, who welcomed the audience to the Funeral for Bad Food:

“I want each of you to ask yourself this question: If I could say goodbye forever to one grocery bag beast, one dinner table tragedy, or, as the kids today would say, one food fail – what would it be? For today we shall topple the burger king… we shall banish the Brussels sprouts, or burritos or bonbons. Yes, friends, this is a funeral. It is time to Pills….bury….your bad food choice.”

He held aloft a coffin-shaped piece of cardboard.

“You will each get a coffin just like this….write down that item, that food failure, that corrupt culinary concept that you wish to cast out. A brisket, a basket, just write it on your casket. Let me put it to you as plainly as I can - place on your sarcophagus that which sticks in your esophagus!”

When everyone had written down their idea of Bad Food, we had a funeral procession through our back field. When we reached the grave site, the Reverend was awaiting us. He tapped each person with a wooden spoon, and each spoke the name of their Bad Food and flung it into the grave – to which we all shouted “Expired!”

photo by Marnie Woodrow

photo by Marnie Woodrow

Hands down, it was the best funeral I’ve ever been to. Of course every funeral worth it’s salt has a reception afterwards, so we noshed on fabulous skull and bone cookies made by RuthGangbar, which a bunch of us had decorated the night before.

Next the inimitable Tamara Segal and Chris Byrne led the audience on a musical foraging walk, pointing out edible wild plants growing all around us which are not only nutritious, but tasty, too! 

Meanwhile some folks were in the barn, making a variety of potato people with our queen of craft, Cynthia Dinsdale. We also had food-themed art hanging in the barn, including work by Erin Johnston, Sarah Renaud Wilkinson, Brandy Gale, and of course, Milé Murtanovski.

Next the audience was led to the silo, where Christine Renaud performed some spoken word. She got the audience involved using the human microphone technique, and then got a bunch of volunteers to get into the silo to perform one of her poems, creating a human ‘silophone.’

Children’s entertainer extraordinaire Andrew Queen was up next, performing some great foodie folk songs from his album ‘Grow.’

Finally, the audience gathered around our new cob bake oven, where Jennifer Morales, a Small Pond resident artist from Milwaukee, read her poem Brought to Light. The poem speaks of fire: “Our kind want to burn…”

Yes, we do. The day was coming to a fiery close; the oven had been lit two hours earlier, and I said a few words for our oven inauguration.

“...With the help of our friends and neighbors we built this oven with our hands. The clay that binds the oven together we dug from under foot; we mixed it with sand and hay and water, and stomped it with our feet. The rocks that make up the base were gathered from all over our property. It took a long time to make this oven, but it was worth it, because we weren't just making it for ourselves, we were making this oven to share with all of you. In the days, months and years to come, this oven will be used to create countless meals, meals made by hand, like the oven itself. Once the oven is fired it stays warm for many hours, and we hope to establish a regular baking schedule, so as a community we can share this warmth with each other. Let this oven serve as a symbol of the good things we can create when we work together.”

The afternoon culminated in a DIY Pizza Party, where folks made their own pizzas and had them fired in the oven by the unflappable Susan Larner.

Susanne masters the oven! Photo by Ruth Gangbar

People lingered long after the show was over, not just savouring the pizza, but reluctant to let go of such a sweet afternoon together.

A big huge thanks to the many artists, foodies, friends and neighbours who helped make this such a wonderful afternoon. We couldn't have done it without you.

Corn Field of Dreams

As part of our Cornography event we asked our audience to write down, on corn-shaped pieces of paper, their responses to "My dream for the future of food is..." These dreams were then paraded through the forest, accompanied by a young fiddler, and 'planted' in a field.

We called this The Corn Field of Dreams.  I found the responses that people wrote very moving and occasionally hilarious.  Here they are.

MY DREAM FOR THE FUTURE OF FOOD IS:

•          A food system that respects all life – both human and more than human
•          Stability.  No one goes hungry.
•          That all food will be chemical free and completely organic.
•          Sustainability, less abuse of animals, more nutrition, less cutting corners, food is the basis of everything; we need to solve our food problems to solve all our problems.
•          A whole diet, community supported agriculture system.
•          To grow my own food, all year round, by way of garden and greenhouse.  And to prepare all my own and my family’s food, without need to purchase prepared foods.
•          Millions of small farmers, homesteaders, backyard gardeners.
•          The end of Walmart and the fair compensation for the hard work of farmers.
•          Grow my own.
•          To be able to afford food.
•          Loootsss of Chinese (x 2! I assume they mean Chinese food?)

•          A garden for every home
•          Everyone growing their own goodness!
•          The onion recognized as the true hero it is.
•          ?
•          (little kid scribbles)
•          No chemicals, no preservatives, all natural, only will (?) what you immediately need.
•          Slot machine spitting out delicious wheels of stinky orange cheese.
•          People able to grow enough good food for all.  Real food.  Not no-till genetically modified crops.
•          Sustainability, local organic food, enough for all.
•          One pill that provides all nutrition.

•          That all will have enough to eat their fill and reach their potential.
•          A society where everyone eats wild foods.
•          There will be enough for everyone.
•          Everyone has a garden, every child knows the feel of dirt and seeds and the joy of planting it and watching it grow, eating it and fully enjoying.
•          To have a brand new chocolate bar named after me!
•          To grow communities where no one is hungry and everyone eats healthy.

•          Less processing!
•          Healthy bacon!
•          To have food not fixed by chemicals, great in taste, healthy to eat.
•          Appreciated, happy farmers who are well paid and share their love of good food.  Natural, tasty, wholesome food from the fields because farmers still feed cities.
•          To not have to go to the supermarket because we grow or exchange what we grow for things we don’t need + Monsanto closed down!
•          I want to own a dairy farm, make cheese, raise bacon honey and barley, eat a hot lunch at a long table and sleep and wake with the sun.
•          Make candy healthy.
•          I like to eat corn.  Yellow corn on the cob.

•          Natural land and soil for planting millions of miles.
•          More for everyone at a sustainable rate.  Possible?  Meh, it’s a dream.
•          Natural, unprocessed, tasty, simple to prepare.
•          That multi-national corporations cannot continue to patent food and screw people over
•      No factory farms – only organic family farms.
•          Pay farmers better, shift subsidies to foods that are good for us, especially vegetables and eat less meat.
•          Unprocessed, fat free, natural.
•          To eat less corn and to plant more crops!
•          Local, natural, organic, wholesome, fresh, yummy.
•          Grown in Fiona’s garden.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their dreams.  Let's keep dreaming together!  To read more about Cornography, click HERE.

Cornography

From the first time I stepped foot on the land that we now call Small Pond Arts, I saw a show happening here. 

We visited the property for the first time in the fall of 2009 while searching for the perfect place for our dream to take hold.  As we walked the paths in the woods, I saw not only myself here, but I saw future artists and audiences here.  The shape and layout of the property would be perfect for a site-specific travelling performance.  On July 24, 2011, this dream was finally realized with Cornography.  My vision was for an afternoon of art about food, where audiences would be led from location to location to discover theatre, music, puppetry, installation and visual art. 

Illustration by Milé Murtanovski

I put out a call for submissions inviting artists of any discipline to respond to the theme of “our twisted relationship with food.”  I have always been a lover of food, and the subject has been much on my mind since moving to the agricultural area of Prince Edward County.  I’ve watched too many documentaries and read too many books about our modern food system, which is so deeply dysfunctional and fragile.  Since we moved here we have grown closer to the food system; within our first year at Small Pond we started growing some of our own food, and after becoming friends with some local farmers we've gained a greater appreciation for the work that they do.  There is so much to say on the subject of food that I wasn’t too surprised when almost 40 artists responded to the call with a dazzling variety of takes on the theme.  As the months went by, the pieces of Cornography fell into place one by one, and the shape of the day took form.

A small portion of the bounty coming from the Small Pond garden

Out-of-town artists started arriving a few days before the show and Small Pond was once again a veritable hive of activity, with elaborate installations being built, rehearsals taking place, artwork being delivered, and much mowing of paths and performance areas.  Then there were the preparations for the meal; if we were going to have 40 artists doing a show about food, we obviously had to feed them, and we had to do it in style.  We planned for the day to conclude in The Great Artists’ Feast, a dinner party held in their honour.

Mary Macdonald working on her installation to make lasting

You never know how these things are going to turn out.  All you can do is be as prepared as possible and hope for the best.  The day finally arrived and the weather was glorious.  All the artists showed up.   And, rather importantly, so did the audience.  The visual art was displayed in the barn, and the show began with a dozen visual artists introducing themselves and their work.  The audience was then led to a Punch and Judy show performed by myself and Trevor Jablonowski, wherein the notorious puppet Punch falls in love with a cob of corn, much to Judy’s misfortune. The audience actually booed at one point – what a great compliment!

Punch and the Corn Cob

Everyone loves a puppet love triangle

Two artists from Florida, Rachael Kerley and Giang Pham, had arrived a few days previous on a week-long artist residency. Their sensual, interactive installation Sacrament, Wash, Passage, Altar took place in the ‘salon du silo,’ the garden area that surrounds the silo.  It was a meditation on the grains of eastern and western cultures: corn and rice.  At Sacrament people were given small bags of pop corn and Rice Krispie squares to munch on; at the Wash station they were offered (and often accepted) a corn oil and rice foot rub; in Passage they walked on a path of rice and corn; and at Altar they were met with an array of glass jars containing oil, water and grains.

Sacrament

Wash

Passage

Altar

Our good friends Bay Woodyard and Gavin North of Honey Pie Hives and Herbals performed a puppet-filled Travelling Medicine Show.

The Traveling Medicine Show

Children were led away to the Art Barn to make corn-husk dolls with Cynthia Dinsdale, and the DitchWitch Brigade from Toronto (Eve Wylden, Antje Budde & friends) presented an excerpt of their play called Miss Toronto Gets a Life in Parkdale.

Children of the corn

Eve Wylden in Miss Toronto Gets a Life in Parkdale

Local songstress Melissa Larkin performed next, filling the art barn with the sound of her tantalizing music and spoken word.  The audience was then led to the spot behind our house, where Guy Doucette, Pat Larkin and Koren Bellman performed a musical puppet piece called Doctor Frankornstein and the Stalking Terror.

Melissa Larkin

Dr. Frankornstein and the Stalking Terror

In the back field our audience met Mary Macdonald and her installation to make lasting.  Mary had been at Small Pond every day that week, mostly perched atop a ladder in our back field as she built a large cage of buckthorn branches.  During Cornography people were invited to write their favourite foods on recipe cards which were hung from the structure. 

Close-up of to make lasting by Mary Macdonald

I had invited local visual artist Chrissy Poitras of Sparkbox Studio to participate in Cornography, and was surprised and delighted when she told me she wanted to do a piece of performance art.  For the performance we laid down a long runway of white felt in the middle of a tall field of grass.  People were asked to take off their shoes and walk down the carpet to where Chrissy was waiting for them, wearing a white dress and blindfold.  She then proceeded to eat a pomegranate as messily as she could.  The audience fell completely silent, mesmerized by the scenario; a little bit of magic taking place under the big blue sky.

Chrissy Poitras just prior to her performance

Jeff Keary gave a lecture on the subject of salt and its insidious nature.  Then Katy McIntyre led a piece we called Cornfield of Dreams.  She passed out pens and paper corn cobs to people and asked them to finish the sentence “My dream of the future of food is…”  Once they’d written their dream, they held them aloft and were led in a procession through the woods, passing young fiddler Luke Norton.  The woods open out to a huge field where people "planted" their dreams atop stakes. 

The procession of dreams.  Photo by Phil Norton.

Luke Norton fiddles in the woods.

"My dream for the future of food is... a garden for every home."

Our final act of the day was Arlene Bishop, a musician I have admired from afar for years.   Arlene’s music is quite simply spell-binding; lucky for us, she’ll be back at Small Pond August 26, 27 and 28 as the musical guest for our shadow puppetry play The History of Shadows.

Arlene Bishop

The Cornography performances and programming may have been over, but there was still one final act: we had to eat!  Long tables were put end to end in the shade of the Manitoba Maple in the front yard, and an abundant buffet of local food (much of it from our own garden!) was laid out.  The Great Artists’ Feast began, and it was so satisfying to sit back and watch all the artists sitting shoulder to shoulder with one another, breaking bread.  The meal was put together by one of my oldest and dearest friends, Tanis De Sa Pereira and her two teenagers, Spencer and Sydnie.   Not only are they great cooks, but having them play such an integral role in the day just added to the warm feeling of being amidst family.

The Great Artists' Feast

As you can imagine, it was a full, full day – full of energy and imagery and ideas, full of friends and laughter and surprises.  Our community was incredibly receptive to Cornography; clearly we have touched on a subject matter which is vital and relevant to them.  The quality and scope of the art was undoubtedly impressive.  Therefore Milé and I have already decided that we will do it all over again; artists, start simmering your ideas and stay tuned for details about Cornography 2012, coming to Small Pond next July!

Krista and Milé give thanks.

Huge thanks to everyone who participated in Cornography, artists and audience alike.  You have shown us what is possible, and we are forever grateful for all that you brought to the table.

Impromptu dinner table art by Celeste Hill.