Designer Ioli Kalliopi Sifakaki has sent us some more images of the performance for her Tantalus Dinner project, when she invited a dozen of her male friends to feast from tableware cast from her own body parts.
Sifakaki presented the project earlier this month at the Royal College of Art graduate show in London. See our previous story here.
At the beginning of the meal all the vessels were upturned, filled with food and randomly placed around the table.
The diners present had to finish all the food to be able to place the dishes in the correct place, face-up, reconstructing the body.
Sifakaki applied ice cubes to her stomach prior to casting in order to capture the texture of her goose bumps.
The diners were forbidden from using cutlery.
Photographs are by Matthew Booth.
Here's some info from Sifakaki:
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A general view of the table shows the torso shape of the table and that each of the twelve stools has a different shape to follow the outline of the table.
In the beginning of the dinner the vessels were full and placed in random order on the table. My guests had to eat everything on the plates in order to turn them upside down and place each one in the right place to compete/reconstruct the body.
Detail of the belly shows the human texture, the "goose pimples". I managed to capture that texture by leaving ice cubes to melt while I was casting my self. It was something difficult to achieve cause we can't control it and I had to do a lot of trials. But the result is not only visible but also you can feel it when you hold the piece.
That tactile experience was one of the main reasons why my guests didn't use any cutlery.