Ever eat a tuna fish sandwich on wheat toast with butter and lettuce, no mayo, and a cup of soup or glass of buttermilk? Alison Knowles, conceived of the piece the Identical Lunch in the 1960s. when a friend and fellow Fluxus artist Philip Corner observed that she ate the same lunch every day at a local diner This daily ritual became a performance where she invited friends to try the same lunch and to write about their experiences.
Knowles wrote a score for the piece, which reads, “The Identical Lunch: a tunafish sandwich on wheat toast with lettuce and butter, no mayo, and a large glass of buttermilk or a cup of soup was and is eaten many days of each week at the same place and at about the same time.” The piece explores how no object is identical to itself within the context of the human experience. Years later, the project has evolved to have communal events where groups of people eat the lunch, and people generate photographs and writings about the experience.
At MoMA, the Identical Lunch event was done in 2011 with visitors eating the Identical Lunch with Knowles. More recently, the piece was part of the exhibition Feast at the SMART Museum of Art at the University of Chicago. Here it was featured in an installation where several times a week, the security supervisor Paul Bryan puts out a real glass of buttermilk and a tunafish sandwich prepared fresh by a local caterer, according to the specifications of Knowles’ score. The lunch is on display and age (and most likely start to mold and smell) until a few days later Paul replaces them again. The museum’s café has the Identical Lunch available for purchase, and visitors are invited to perform the score and eat lunch.
A video about the Identical Lunch is online, and by watching it – you might even get inspired to eat a tuna sandwich.. and maybe a glass of buttermillk.
Image Source:
www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1126
blogs.uchicago.edu/feast/2012/05/planning_the_identical_lunch.html
Links:
www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1126
blogs.uchicago.edu/feast/2012/05/planning_the_identical_lunch.html