The bread of life
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Beatriz Millar makes bread sculptures in the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art at the opening of the exhibition. Photos: Courtesy of the museum |
Every time Beatriz Millar finishes baking one of her women-shaped pieces of bread, she takes a couple of photos of each one (before and after baking) before handing them over to grateful friends to eat. And although the bread quickly disappears, their image remains; images that are now on display at the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art as part of Millar's solo exhibition, Salve Regina Souvenir.
Baking diary
"Basically I made one piece of bread a day, so the photos are like a baking diary," Millar, 44 , told the Global Times. The Swiss-Italian artist was born into a family with a long history of baking, and besides the 72 framed photographs, another highlight of the exhibition are 30 of the very same bread "sculptures," each uniquely designed, but all featuring aspects of Millar's trademark exaggerated feminine features.
According to curator Matteo Pollini, the exhibition represents a rediscovery, in both textual and visual terms, of womanhood. He told the Global Times the artist was inspired by the women who have influenced her in her life, as well as by the symbols of womanhood from various cultures and historical backgrounds. For the artist, bread represents the feminine power to create.
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Bread sculptures on show in the exhibition: Pacha Mama, Pentesilea, Hathor and Medusa. |
Resembling ancient human idols, all of the sculptures are placed in plexiglass cases that - contrasting with the simplicity of a material like bread - emphasize the sacral aura of these figures. In Millar's recreation of a matriarchal society, each sculpture is named after iconic women from either history or mythology. In the works, plump breasts, large stomachs and exaggerated genitalia are all accentuated in the sculptures, symbolizing the worship of female fertility.
Millar makes the bread sculptures from scratch - mixing the flour, adding the eggs and kneading the dough herself. Accessories on the sculpture include mosaics, shells and pebbles, used to represent eyes, nipples and navels.
Pollini said: "Millar lives near a lake in Italy and all the raw materials, like the bread itself, are easily found in those surroundings."
Millar said: "My ingredients come directly from the 'female,' so to speak - milk from the cow, and eggs from the chicken."
Uncertain art
Pollini added: "Millar handmakes them without any preparation before she starts creating. It also vividly demonstrates how many changes occur once the formed dough is baked. Uncertainty is also an element of this type of art."
The artist even prepared and baked a woman-shaped piece of bread for guests at the exhibition launch in Shanghai. "It's all about the spirit of sharing," said Millar.
Pollini went onto explain that during the one-month exhibition period, the bread sculptures will be preserved with a type of chemical coating to stop the bread from going mouldy.
"Normally bread should be put in the oven for 30 minutes, but these particular ones need to be baked for two to three hours, and at a lower temperature," Pollini told the Global Times. Works on display at the exhibition will travel to Italy this November.
Salve Regina Souvenir is Millar's first bread-themed exhibition. In the exhibition hall, a video installation shows the procedure of how the artist transforms the basic ingredients into her works of art.
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