Chewing Through Excess: Materiality, Class, and Commodification in Janine Antoni’s Gnaw
Meit, Hannah L.
Meit, Hannah L.
Citations
Altmetric:
Abstract
This thesis examines Janine Antoni’s Gnaw (1992) and the related work Phenylethylamine, exploring how its materiality—chocolate and lard, specifically—serves as a thinking device to reconsider class, consumerism, and food “waste” in contemporary art. Antoni’s Gnaw is a multi-part sculpture; the first part of the work consists of two 600-pound blocks, one of chocolate and one of lard, which are carved into by Antoni’s own mouth. The chewed material, then repurposed into numerous heart-shaped chocolate boxes and lard lipsticks. These recast objects are both artworks and commodities, displayed on glass shelving in the exhibition space. The art-objects offer deep contemplation on the work by way of process, material of the objects themselves, and contextual framing. How, then, does Gnaw leverage materiality to gauge the relationship between excess, food waste, and social class? How do foodstuffs become an object of misuse when they circumvent necessity to serve as an art world commodity? The research relies on primary sources, such as interviews, along with Janine Antoni’s own writings and interviews. Scholarly literature on the artist’s engagement with materiality, the body, and foodstuffs is also used in this critique to trace the lineage of Antoni’s work as it relates to both food art and artistic practices in the 1990s. The historiography of food art as well as context on Minimalism, Conceptualism, and sculpture will be important to understand. In addition to art history, it will be crucial to note other fields such as food studies and sociology, specifically as they relate to class and material culture. Overall, this interdisciplinary approach allows for a comprehensive investigation into how food art is reconfigured in Gnaw, complicating the relationship between consumerism and class. In the context of Antoni’s 1992 work, the use of food acts as a subversion of its utilitarian function, thereby frustrating the expectations of use. The current state of scholarship on Antoni’s artwork favors either a feminist analysis understood through body-process and performance art, or it focuses on the viewer’s sensory experiences. Current art-historical writing on food art avoids considering how the use of food as an artistic medium can be a form of sociological inquiry. As a result, it is a necessary addition to question foodstuffs within the relationship to both class and material culture. Therefore, rather than examining food art within the context of participatory engagement or philosophical debates, this thesis analyzes the role of food in art as an extension to the sociological function of the material. Through a mixed-methodological approach of material history and socioeconomic analysis during the 1990s, close attention to the influence of Minimalism and Conceptualism in Antoni’s Gnaw will also be necessary. Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework is also pertinent here, particularly his concepts of cultural capital and habitus, which aid in understanding how Gnaw subverts notions of taste and distinction. In turn, this helps to analyze Antoni's manipulation of food and prompts further inquiry into the social hierarchies embedded in the production, consumption, and disposal of food—and art as wasteful excess. Janine Antoni’s work raises new questions about the commodification of waste: when food, a necessity, becomes an art object, the artist herself paradoxically engages in the “misuse” of the material.
Description
Thesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Art and Design)--John Cabot University, Spring 2025.
Date
2025
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Collections
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Janine Antoni
Citation
Meit, Hannah L. "Chewing Through Excess: Materiality, Class, and Commodification in Janine Antoni’s Gnaw". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2025.