August 2011: Greenbelt - You are what you eat

The theme of Greenbelt this year was 'Dreams of Home'. As part of this, there were a set of worship installations on the theme of 'Home' - different groups were given different rooms. Grace were asked to do 'Kitchen'. We created a simulated kitchen with equipment and relabelled food.

The installations were in the horse boxes around the Messy Space area and marquee. Since there was no obvious differentiation between it and the 'messy space' play area, children used the installation as a playground without supervision. It had to be closed after about three hours due to the mess. We had expected a certain amount of mess - eaten chocolates, squashed vegetables - we had cleaning materials and spares. However the children [it may only have been two or three] had opened half the contents and created a strange liquid mess in the mixing bowl. That seemed to be where the cucumber, cabbage and all of the peppercorns had gone. Many things had been spoiled by being opened and having fingers stuck in them. We couldn't work out why some chocolates and cakes were eaten, but others not touched, eg the fun-size Mars bars and the crisps. The eggs were intact but the instant coffee opened. And so on.

The following morning we dismantled the whole thing. At the time we couldn't see how to make it work without spending more time and energy than we possessed. We had worked very hard to create it and were angry and dispirited.

Outline:

the installation consists primarily of prepackaged food and fresh food. we will change the titles on the food to words derived from christian theology/virtues/vices, trying to avoid obvious combinations of word and food item

ideas:

is our faith prepacked or are we cooking with the raw materials?
is the bible a cookbook?
law [following the recipe book] vs spirit [improvising, left-overs]

can we get people to design their own meal using the ingredients [prepackaged and raw]?
balanced diet - raw or prepacked, or how do you mix?

in season and out of season [in food box] learning to like things that are all that is
in season, or that we have to eat too often during their season
discipline of reacquaintance - food that we didn't like but it's all there is - how do we find new ways of cooking it?
the supermarket aisles we don't go down

fresh stuff needs refreshing over weekend - or do we let some things go off?

installation props:

fridge - cheltenham recycling depot near racecourse should have one.
kitchen table/worktop - ask GB if they have trestle tables
waxed tablecloths
chopping boards
shopping lists
noticeboards
tea towels with marker pen messages [soluble inks to wash]
fridge magnets
kitchen-style lampshade for bare bulb in horse box

titles for food labels, eg:

love [on salt]
faith
hope
perseverance
joy
peace
pride
greed
idolatry
etc

biblical quotes about food, cooking, kitchens etc, [matt] eg:

martha and mary
the shunnamite woman in elisha
the woman who swept room looking for coin
abigail brought cakes for david and his men
the passover
prophets being told how to make/cook stuff
manna [couldn't be stored]
leaven
the naughty figs [jeremiah 24 KJV]
acts 10 peter and the sheet of unclean animals