doych

When many chefs are better than one

As an art director, I can safely say that a big pet peeve of creatives is to have "design by committee" (our term of endearment for  "too many cooks in the kitchen") or simply and non-metaphorically put, too many opinions and managers in on a project. To my surprise and delight, I found a project where too many chefs can only make this work stronger...

Artist Antoni Miralda and his collaborators are almost halfway through a progressive dinner entitled "Tastes & Tongues / Sabores y Lenguas." Tastes/Sabores is an evolving art work, with photographic, culinary portraits of each city. It's been shown in museums in Caracas and Bogotá, and has been invited to important international art festivals in Latin America, including the Havana Biennial in June. The next festival stop: the Sao Paulo Biennial in October. Other culinary captures include Miami,  Lima,  Mexico City and Havana. Soon it will go to Managua, Santo Domingo, San Juan, Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Barcelona.

In each city, Tastes/Sabores becomes part festival, part imaginary dinner party, with giant tongue-shaped photo collages, a video, and dozens of unique objects created by inhabitants of that city. They document daily examples of how food and creativity mesh.

When asked to explain the art of the exhibit, Miralda sighs: ''It's always difficult, because there is not a product that people can take home as a piece of art. So they take home more a memory, and an image, or an experience.''

Fireflies as approach to reality

It's now my favorite dog-walking time of year when fireflies are screaming in their loudest illumination. What is usually a dark, rock-tripping stutter through an empty field late at night with my greyhound is temporarily lit by what looks to be millions of little light bulbs known as fireflies, lightning bugs, and even glow worms. (They're actually beetles.)

I have to admit my captivation. I'm lucky to live in a very private wooded area where these bad boys can go nuts blinking their little butts on and off. Literally. I mean, literally they're bad boys - one theory is the males are blinking the brightest in the taller trees while the girls stay low, setting off a more seductive blink. If human interest were only so obvious. I digress.

I think even my dog is hypnotized by the spectacle. But then again the light show has me so mesmerized that Rocky now has all the time in the world to do his business. There's no rush on these evenings - I've forgotten any late night fear of wild dogs, rabid raccoons or foot-stomping deer. This is Soprano land in North NJ so there's also suspect cars slowing down once in a while.

No fears on firefly nights. Their massive cluster of lights is beyond any more desciptive words. I thought about trying to capture it on camera but I know I can not do the visual any justice. I tried Googling some firefly images and found no photographic evidence close to what I witness, but I did find this pictured installation from the 2004 Whitney Biennial. "Fireflies on the Water" is an installation with 150 lights, mirrors and water, by Yayoi Kusama.

Finally, I found a close approach to reality, but I doubt anyone sauntering through the Whitney is looking down and whispering "Go poo."