Hi. From Chicago, here is the 3rd installment of Social Securityentitled Jackson Potluck. As you might imagine it combines aspects of participatory culture, communal dining, the fine arts by gathering some group of people together to create a delicious cake to the exact size of Pollock’s No. 5.

 

This is very similar in spirit to my first suggested idea, Public Lo Mein, and did initially grow out of a desire to produce a series of food + intellectual property-based events under the umbrella name of Pre Fixe. I use No. 5 because its a known work, is of a size that allows for large groups to partake, and derivative works can be produced easily by all ages. There’s nothing particular about the work’s history to read into. So, for the reader unfamiliar with Jackson Pollock or No. 5, I will simply supply the intro and a pic (above) from Wikipedia:

“No. 5, 1948 is a painting by Jackson Pollock, an American painter known for his contributions to the abstract expressionist movement. The painting was done on an 8’ x 4’ sheet of fiberboard, with thick amounts of brown and yellow paint drizzled on top of it, forming a nest-like appearance.”

Here is how I envisioned my version of a Jackson Potluck to play out:

   1. 32 people make one 12” x 12” cake, sans frosting.
   2. The cakes are brought to a central location and placed in a 8 x 4 grid
   3. The host applies “gesso” in the form of an uniform coat of frosting
   4. Toppings (syrups, melted coco) are placed in old tin cans with brushes
   5. Participants take turns action-painting the toppings on the painting 

Potential Issues:

   1. Uneven cake height. You might need cardboard to pad the bottoms

   2. Cost. Participants may need to all chip in / Kickstarter might prove useful.

   3. Mess. Get tarps, have plenty of space, and be prepared for the worst.

   4. The food. Do your best to use organic and chemical-free ingredients! 

Now, as all this is going on I assume some type of documentation is taken place resulting in the production of a fine video and series of photographs.

Once the work is completed, the host cuts it into pieces for a larger invited audience. If we cut the cakes into 4” x 4” slices (which I argue is fairly generous) we get 9 servings per cake and 288 slices total. This makes Jackson Potluck perfect for schools, large museums and galleries, as well as well attended dance parties.

The larger audience can then be part of any number of things – they can dance, watch a movie, or have casual conversation about how to pronounce the name Goethe – whatever. In my world, there would likely be a lecture about the history of cakes. In reality, I’d think it would be a good opportunity to get a group of younger kids together and hear a talk about modern art and nutrition at the same time. That’s the long short of how to produce a Jackson Potluck, hope some folks try it out and get at me!

The partial, low resolution image of No. 5 used in this article is an excerpt of the original found onWikipedia.