PERFORMANCE
#omnomnom (2014)
Part performance, part dinner reservation and presented as a party, Omnomnom is inspired by the awkward performativity and often kitsch and gluttonous nature of birthday parties, anniversaries, communions and public political commemorations. Through clashing and subverting various eclectic dining and food-related ritual practices, notions of celebration and commemoration are questioned and provoked. In the performance, deconsecrated religious spaces become host to intimate and unconventional (un?)celebratory events in which the audience is invited to mark, exploit, colonise and devour the artist’s body which is presented and mythologised as meat and land for the taking.
Omnomnom was performed at the National Arts Festival 2014 (Grahamstown, South Africa), in the Allan Webb Hall (Mother Cecile Memorial Hall), where it received a Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award.
Created by Gavin Krastin.
Performed by Gavin Krastin and Lauren Fletcher.
Press:
Festival Ovation Award winners announced | Grocott’s Mail | Staff reporter
An appetite to celebrate? | Artslink | Press Release
Making a meal of it in #omnomnom | Cue Online | Robyn Sassen
A talked about piece #omnomnom | Arts Comments Blog | Moira de Swardt
Untamed creatives fire up the fringe | Tonight | Steyn du Toit
Gold ovation award winners shine at festival | Herald Live | Allan Williams
Best of the National Arts Festival 2014 | Between 10 and 5 | Layla Lieman
Grahamstown 2014 – many beauty spots, some warts | South African Jewish Report | Robyn Sassen
