Lawson, J (2018) The Gift of Cake: Baking together in performance. Performance Research, 23 (6). pp. 69-73. ISSN 1352-8165
Abstract
In this article I introduce a series of durational, participatory baking performances that I made between 2011-2013. Through a process of exchange, the audience were invited to share a memory about a special person, place, time or cake; in return, I baked their memories into unique cakes dedicated to those memories. With reference to these works I consider the potential for cakes in performance to develop articulations of generosity between participants, and map new avenues of exchange and commensality. Drawing on Edward Casey’s work on remembrance, I reflect on the strategies of commemorative exchange used throughout the performances. I problematize the commonplace function of the cake as a symbolic gift from the woman/mother figure, and discuss how the experience of baking together in these performances produced a web of spontaneous, multi-directional exchange between unknown givers and receivers. I argue that this process of exchange unsettled the cultural function of cakes as gendered, asymmetrical gifts, becoming instead the work of the collective that celebrated multifarious human experiences. Finally, I reflect on what was left when the cakes were eaten and the artworks destroyed, proposing that the act of sharing cake produced a feeling of generosity that became the essence of a community that lived on beyond the live events.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > Performance and Cultural Industries (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 29 Nov 2018 10:54 |
Last Modified: | 29 May 2020 00:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13528165.2018.1533764 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:139330 |