Cockaigne, the 14th century mythical medieval land where leisure time reigns supreme and food is in abundant and infinite supply has been given a new and inspired lease of life by Gayle Chong Kwan…Cockaigne comprises twelve photographs showing the idle gourmand’s paradise in all its decadent glory, but with a delicious twist: the landscapes themselves are made entirely out of foodstuffs…. But, just as Damien Hirst is making moves to replace his now-rotten shark in formaldehyde in The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), Gayle Chong Kwan has worked skilfully to capture the temporal for posterity. Her micro-worlds were created two years ago and have obviously been consigned to the waste bin long before now; but her photographic timing is perfect. The culinary treatment of a centuries-old, utopian legend makes us aware of the intrinsic decay within so great an empire, leading all too readily to its demise. And so the food is pictured just on the verge of turning bad.In Resort (2004), the stately cheese buildings are sweating; in Babel (2004), the strips of ham, pinned together to form a magnificent tower, are curling and rancid. Even the apple palm trees of Avalon (2004) are brown underneath. And therein lies a sobering moral to give us all a little food for thought.
Kay Carson
July 2006
