







































Education, Language and Sociology Research 
ISSN 2690-3644 (Print) ISSN 2690-3652 (Online) 

Vol. 2, No. 3, 2021 
www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr 

Original Paper 

Exploring Food Cultures through Art: Meeting People Where 

They Are at 
Kim Beasy1* & Leah Page1 

1 University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia  
* Kim Beasy, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia 

 

Received: June 21, 2021         Accepted: July 8, 2021        Online Published: July 14, 2021 

doi:10.22158/elsr.v2n3p47            URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v2n3p47 

 

Abstract 

Engaging people in critical conversations about food practices is often challenging. In this paper, we 

explore how an exhibition was used as an educative site to explore food insecurity and food cultures 

and to promote food ethics and healthy eating. Surveys and interviews from the opening night of an 

exhibition were collected and Bourdieu’s habitus was used to theoretically inform analysis. The 

diversity of artworks displayed were found to provoke critical reflection about food cultures among 

participants. Findings revealed the exhibition was a non-intrusive space for meeting people ‘where 

they were at’ in understandings of food and food practice. Artworks were found to evoke reflections on 

food as a cultural phenomenon and as a deeply personal component of everyday worlds. The tensions 

in making food choices and food as agentic in participants lives were highlighted. Findings suggest 

that exhibitions may support critical engagement with food practice when audiences are given 

opportunities to discuss their thoughts and ideas. 

Keywords 

food practices, habitus, art, Bourdieu, agency 

 

1. Introduction 

For many people, the consumption of food is deeply personal—by default, changing our habits and 

practices in the consumption of food becomes deeply personal. Research has shown that individuals are 

more likely to change their food practices when they make decisions to change on their own accord 

(Mackenzie & Watts, 2019). While this seems a sensible conclusion, it is a profound finding 

considering the continued efforts by dietitians, nutritionists and those invested in food transitions for 

sustainability, to convince people that their food practice needs to change. Engaging people in 

personalised ways that recognise the social and cultural meanings they associate with food was a 

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recommendation made by Chen (2016), who revealed the complexities for low income mothers in 

adopting healthy food practices. To progress food change agendas, ways of educating people that are 

non-threatening, but encourage reflection on individual practices and at the same time present 

alternatives, need to be found. 

The arts can promote reflection and ‘awareness of what it is to be in this world’ among those viewing it 

(Greene, 1995, p. 35) and have become increasingly recognised as a communicative platform to raise 

awareness of food insecurity and sustainable food practices (Smith, 2016; Zenith Community Arts 

Foundation, 2011). Crossick, Kaszynska and Gilmore’s (2015) report Understanding the value of arts 

and culture suggests that the arts can contribute to better outcomes across a number of social issues, 

including food justice, health and environment through provocation and education. They note, ‘the arts 

can provide spaces within which alternative ways of thinking, imagining and acting may take shape’ 

(2015, p. 63). The authors focus on how the arts can foster the reflective individual and the engaged 

citizen, but have been criticised for the sparse evidence used to support these claims (Farrell, 2016). 

Resonating with these claims, Watson (2007, p. 1) suggests museums too have the ‘power to shape 

collective values and social understandings’.  

In this paper, we contribute to the limited research that explores how art can be used as an educative 

tool to engage with food practices (Crossick, Kaszynska, & Gilmore, 2015). We explore how an 

exhibition in Tasmania, Australia, curated to promote healthy food cultures, was interpreted by 

attendees. Based on the 2014-15 National Health Survey, Tasmania had the highest rate of persons aged 

18 years and over who were overweight or obese (67.5%). Research investigating these statistics 

suggest that the low socioeconomic (SES) status of Tasmania, as well as the state’s aging demographic 

(Denny, 2018), increase issues relating to food security, which in effect results in adverse health (Le et 

al., 2013). While we acknowledge that accessibility of local, nutritious food needs to be a priority, 

equally, the constitution of food as a cultural practice that is socially located, must be considered. Like 

Maguire (2016), we share a similar ‘attentiveness to the situatedness and complexity of food practices 

and preferences’ among individuals which has informed this research.  

We draw on habitus as a way of understanding bodies as dynamic and adaptive, embodying past 

experiences while adapting to the necessities of the conditions in the present moment. This recognises 

individuals as individuals, not defined by demographic indicators, but rather, connected through 

complex and dialectical interactions with the social world (Beasy, 2018, 2019, 2021). Reay (2004) 

describes habitus as the body being present in the social world as well as the social world being present 

in the body. Expanding this idea, Reay (2004) implies that social worlds are always located within the 

individual, through practical reason and performances in fields—In this paper, we reflect on food 

practice logics embodied in habitus. Habitus resonates as a conceptual tool for acknowledging and 

working with the situatedness of knowing and being, which we use to explore the dialectical relations 

between participants positioning and their perceptions of the exhibition (Bourdieu, 1984a).  

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This frame is applied in recognition of the consumption of food as a complex socially and culturally 

located practice (Bourdieu, 1984a) and in recognition that art, too, occurs within a social, political, 

artistic, and cultural context (Kuttner, 2015). Bourdieu incorporates analysis of social context in 

understanding social phenomenon, through questions that consider simultaneously how the social 

environment and the resources an agent can access, influence individual agency.  

To consider how visual arts may contribute to moving communities towards reflecting on their food 

practices, we ask How do people interpret arts about food that have an educative focus? To explore this 

question, we focus on the experiences and interpretations of participants at an art exhibition, the 

‘Imagining Food Exhibition’. 

1.1 The Exhibition 

Imagining Food: Art, Aesthetics and Design was an exhibition focused on food ‘as more than a means 

of sustaining life, but as a motif that colours the patterns of life’ (University of Tasmania, 2017). Works 

of various forms including painting, sculpture, photography, furniture, craft, installation and mixed 

media were exhibited for public display in a University’s visual arts gallery. Whilst the brief of the 

exhibition was not to educate or inform audiences about food related issues, this was a strong driver in 

making decisions about presenting the works for the exhibition curators (Bywaters, personal 

communication, 2017).  

The Imagining Food Exhibition visually presented aspects of the food industry (including the culling of 

calves in the dairy industry) that are often hidden from view in society. The artists’ intent to act as 

provocateur, reflects a pedagogical approach of discomfort which seeks to challenge viewers to think 

deeply about what is represented in the artwork (Leibowitz et al., 2010; Zembylas & Boler, 2003). 

When people feel uncomfortable, they may be encouraged to reflect on their own perspectives and 

beliefs (Zembylas & Boler, 2003). Faraji (2016) in his doctoral studies found that when people 

experience something unexpected, it is more likely to be remembered. Zembylas and Boler (2003) 

suggest pedagogies that engage people emotionally, particularly in surprising and unexpected ways, can 

de-centre previously held beliefs (Crossick, Kaszynska, & Gilmore, 2015) and result in more effective 

learning (although this is most often temporary) (Walmsley, 2013).  

‘The controversial nature of the subject matter’ encouraged participants to think about the artist’s 

interpretation and consider their own positioning in relation to it. For some participants, ‘…the more 

confronting pieces [were] the best’. Others noted that they ‘[like] any art that can provoke and jar me. I 

like it, but I don’t like it. But, I like that it can bring me into a space where I am unsettled. That for me 

is a marker of quality in terms of how I can interact with it’. It was in these moments of discomfort that 

participants often made a personal connection to an art piece. 

 

 

 

 
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2. Method 

Participants were recruited on the opening night of the exhibition and asked to participate in a written 

questionnaire and/or an interview. Questions were developed in reference to the key aims of the 

research project and to the literature (Crosskick & Kaszynska, 2016; Kuttner, 2015). The questionnaire 

was offered to people as they entered the exhibition, and a secure collection box was used for 

participants to deposit completed questionnaires on their way out. 

In the development of an interview schedule, we drew upon phenomenological techniques in framing 

questions (Maggs-Rapport, 2000; Thompson & Coskuner-Balli, 2007). For example, in the interview, 

to stimulate recall of feelings or experience, the following question was asked: Has there been anything 

that you have seen tonight that has made you think about your relationship with food? Questions from 

the survey included: 

• Was there one artwork that stood out the most for you? Yes / No 

Can you describe which one (or draw it!)? Why did this stand out for you? 

• Do you think the exhibition was delivering a message? Yes / No 

If so, can you briefly explain it? 

• Has the exhibition made you think about your food consumption practices? Yes / No 

Can you explain in what way? 

Interviews were recorded and information about the research project was read to participants and 

informed consent was captured verbally—in alignment with ethics protocols (University of Tasmania 

approved: H0016405)—utilizing a script adapted from a University of Oxford (2016) template. 

Interviews were conducted during the exhibition in a quiet location and lasted between 10-30 minutes. 

Forty people submitted a questionnaire and seven people participated in the interviews. Participants 

were predominantly tertiary educated or current university students, were English-speaking, and 

Caucasian. Based on survey data, over 40% of participants lived in low socio-economic suburbs, 30% 

were from high socio-economic suburbs, and those remaining chose not to say (Australian Bureau of 

Statistics, 2011). 

2.1 Writing as Method 

In working with the questionnaire and interview transcripts, we employed writing to analyse and 

interpret the data. Writing as method is well known in qualitative research and is used across a number 

of discipline areas (i.e., education, sustainability scholarship) (Colyar, 2009; Green, 2015). Scholars 

contend that writing is an ongoing process throughout a research project and integral in forming 

interpretations of data (Moules et al., 2015). Colyar positions writing as a ‘learning tool’ in processes of 

research and as a generative act. She claims that ‘writing is product and process’ (2009, p. 422) 

(emphasis added). She goes on to say that ‘I will not come to understand my own argument until I have 

completed the initial draft. Only then will I know what I want to say…I cannot draw the roadmap until 

I know what the road looks like’ (2009, p. 422).  

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Green similarly advocates that qualitative research ‘…is emergent, exploratory, recursive, an “act of 

discovery”, of invention’ (2015, p. 6). He posits writing as an indiscriminate component of doing 

research. He terms this conceptualisation of writing, as ‘research-as-writing’ (2015, p. 5). Shown in the 

extract from the author’s shared research journaling below, we used writing as a process for eliciting 

meaning. Through being open to our own processes of influence, we realised that in many cases, the 

stories in the data had only been brought to the surface for participants because of the engagement in 

the research project.  

Why is it that participants needed a moment to think before answering these questions? Why don’t we 

talk more about the relationships we have with food, when food is so central to who we are? Maybe it 

is because of this centrality that relations with food are often overlooked? How does food shape lives 

and how are lives shaped by it? The exhibition sought to capture our complex and multifaceted 

relationships with food. Participants seemed to recognise these relationships and express mixed 

feelings about their engagements with food. How does food become an act of identity? 

We found that writing as method enabled an exploratory approach with opportunities for curiosity and 

intimacy in interacting with participants’ voice. 

 

3. Findings 

Art perception is recognised as a subjective and often individualised activity (Crossick, Kaszynska, & 

Gilmore, 2015), reflected in the diversity of comments from different participants about one piece of 

artwork shown below: ‘The piece stood out due to its sculptural element. The fact that you can view it 

in 360 is quite impactful’, ‘I have never experienced an animal as a piece of art before—quite 

confronting!’ ‘I am a vegan—it made me feel good about my choices’. How participants interpreted 

Bobby’s Silent Witness was influenced by how their personal food practices were supported, or by how 

much they knew of the dairy industry. ‘Any art perception involves a conscious or unconscious 

deciphering operation’ (Bourdieu, 1984b, p. 1), which includes drawing on previous experiences and 

ways of knowing the world in combination with the present context. It is this coming together of 

perceptions and experiences in processes of meaning-making that occur for every individual, that 

means the interpretation one viewer makes of an art piece, is in many ways, unique to that individual. 

 

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Figure 1. Amelia Rowe, Bobby’s silent witness, 2017. Photo by: Damien Walker 

 

This was revealed in the ways that participants engaged in discussion about the art pieces that reflected 

the intended themes (as detailed by the artists on the artwork descriptor). However, many participants 

used these interpretations as a point of entry to create their own understandings—assembling their ideas 

around the artist’s intended representation, complexified with personal questioning and connection 

(Crowther, 1993). For example, one participant reflected on her own food practice around meat 

consumption after having viewed the Bobby calf. The interviews appeared useful in helping 

participants work through and discuss their ideas about the artworks, with some interviewees 

expressing appreciation for the opportunity to process their thoughts about the artworks via the 

interview. 

There were similarities in the ways that participants interpreted the artworks, reflecting abstract 

concepts such as universality. Another theme throughout the data was the ways that the artworks 

encouraged participants to reflect on personal ideas and practices of food consumption. The findings 

suggest that the artwork prompted participants to reflect on food as a constant mediator and connector 

in their personal social and cultural worlds. 

3.1 Participant’s Understanding of Food as Cultural 

Artworks in the exhibition prompted participants to think about society and culture more broadly. 

While food was the theme of the exhibition, one participant in an interview spoke about issues of 

consumption after viewing an artwork of a skeleton with a knife and fork crossed over the front (Figure 

2):  

It made me think about how we strive to be individuals and we strive to be unique through our body 

image, our skin colour and our race. But when you strip away all the things that make us individual, we 

are all the same bound by the food of our culture. And so it made me question our whole notion of 
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consumption and what we consume to make us who we are as an individual. (Sophie, early 20s, 

University Student) 

 

 

Figure 2. Renee Austin, A lifestyle, not a disease, 2017. Photo by: Damien Walker 

 

Similar to the comment above, another participant in an interview interpreted a different artwork 

according to the theme of consumption. This artwork was a chicken burger, but rather than a fillet of 

chicken in the bun, the artwork was a burger bun filled with hundreds of small chickens. 

[I liked] a piece in the gallery based around the idea of food porn as its very relevant to today because 

you can’t scroll through social media without finding a…cheeseburger. So the idea of showing that 

through art, and the whole idea of consumption around food and the idea of kind of the publicizing of 

food as a product I think is quite interesting. (Casey, early 20s, University Student) 

The interpretations of the participants shown here reflect the intended interpretations of the artists. 

Sophie and Casey were current university students who reflected a habitus firmly located in education 

and as noted by Bourdieu (1984b, p. 3), ‘educated people are at home with scholarly culture’. Their 

interpretations were sophisticated in the sense that they made connections from the artwork to larger 

social phenomenon, such as consumption practices and social media. While a similar theme was 

extracted by Sophie and Casey in the art pieces, they engaged in different artworks and drew on their 

personal interests and experiences (i.e., social media) to make sense of the ideas. This suggests that the 

way social issues are interpreted is influenced by social positioning and by the social worlds that people 

inhabit, which extends beyond simplified ideas of educational experience in determining 

ideas/value/interpretations (Bourdieu, 1984a; Bourdieu, 1990). 

 

 
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3.2 Participant’s Understanding of Food as Personal 

While participants engaged with a diverse array of artworks, when asked which art piece they liked and 

why, a similarity in responses was revealed. Participants suggested that artworks were most notable 

when they could relate to them in some way, or make personal connections with them. One participant 

connected with an artwork of an empty and dishevelled fridge (Figure 3) because she identified as a 

‘poor uni student’. She saw herself and her experience reflected and captured in the artwork: 

[I connected with] the fridge with the discarded rubbish which looks a little bit like my fridge as a poor 

uni student! I think society in general right now is really quite based on food and publicizing food with 

the rise of fast food and I thought it was a good way to show the effects of that. (Sally, early 20s, 

University Student) 

 

 
Figure 3. Sandra Murray, Stuart Auckland, Dr Katherine Kent, Dr Simone Lee, Food Desert, 

2017. Photo by: Darren Grattidge 

 

Trent, a mid-20s university student, was drawn only to one art piece because of his work affiliation 

stating, ‘I work at a restaurant. I am a waiter. This was the only one I connected with’. The image of the 

chef represented a familiar social field for Trent and when prompted to discuss this in more detail, we 

reflected on the responsibility’s chefs have in producing and making quality food for people. The ways 

that people are constructed in discourses including imagery influences how it is that ‘people’ relate to 

them. Conrad (2012, p. 1) terms this ‘the resonance ability of the frames presented’. Literature suggests 

that if people cannot identify or connect with a discourse or artefact, then there is less likelihood of 

engagement with it (Conrad, 2012). Therefore, reflecting the identities of the intended audience may be 
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useful in engaging people in artwork, however, the comments from both Sally and Trent did not 

demonstrate any abstracting of the concepts under exploration. Instead, these representations acted to 

affirm identities rather than to promote critical engagement with the underlying themes of the art pieces 

or in food practice. 

3.3 Agency and Choice in Food Practices 

Some artworks portrayed concepts of agency in food practice and elicited responses from participants 

about what and why they eat certain foods. For example, Patricia, who was in her mid-40s, said ‘I am a 

vegan—it made me feel good about my choices/and hoped that this may influence others too’. Similar 

to participants who were validated in their vegan food practices, some participants felt empowered by 

their choices or their perceived freedom of choice, as prompted through interpretations of the artwork. 

Comments to this effect included Abbey, a mid-30s graduate who said, ‘being more mindful of what I 

consume and implications of what I consume’. Abbey enjoyed the confrontation of the exhibit and was 

particularly struck by one image of a recipe for Lemongrass Dog. Other participants were inspired to 

re-think their food choices, for example, Kathy (age unspecified), suggested that ‘[the exhibition] was 

interesting and made me think about reconsidering some of my food options’. Kathy was struck by It’s 

a Lifestyle not a Disease artwork, which had prompted her to think about whether she makes the right 

food choices. 

Yet, this was contrasted with others who described a sense of powerlessness, or lack of agency in 

making food choices. For example, Halle, an early-20s high school graduate, interpreted the artworks 

in ways intended by the artist (i.e., exploring consumption and choice), however, came to quite 

different conclusions regarding what this might mean for her: ‘The foods of our culture define who we 

are’ and ‘…food and how it can control us’. In these comments, Halle positions herself as subservient 

in her food practice relations. At the same time, she devolves her responsibility and instead concludes 

that she has little agency over food consumption. 

Literature suggests that relations with food are complex and any sustainable change in food practices 

must work within socio-cultural conditions—beyond accounting for economic resources or time, but 

engage with personal histories, tastes and cultural capital to support transitions to new food practices 

(Bourdieu, 1984a; McKenzie & Watts, 2019). The comments from some participants about their food 

practices suggested they were free from cultural and economic capital restraints, such as those that 

found comfort in their choice to eat a vegan diet. Overwhelmingly, veganism is a diet that exists in 

middle class cultures that Greenebaum (2016) argues reflects a privileged position of a food consumer. 

In contrast, Halle and other younger participants felt restricted in navigating their food practices due to 

their cultural (i.e., ‘foods of our culture define who we are’) and economic (‘poor uni student’) 

conditions. These findings reveal how participants engaged with artworks for varied reasons and drew 

conclusions about what the artworks were communicating might mean for them, in ways that were 

reflective of, and at the same time, symptomatic of, their habitus.  

 
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3.4 Food as Agentic 

Many participants reflected on the ways that food was a powerful agent in their lives. Participants 

wrestled with this idea in interviews and in qualitative survey comments, and often described the 

‘power’ of food in binary terms as well as abstract generalizations. This stumbling for language was 

interpreted as a struggle for participants, in making sense of how insentient objects (food consumables) 

could hold power over them (Harvey, McKeekin, & Warde, 2004). 

Some artworks specifically represented health implications of certain food practices and the power of 

food to shape states of being. Bianca, a mid-30s university graduate, suggested that ‘Food is powerful - 

Building health, ruining health?’ Participants ascribed a form of agency to food in articulations of their 

relationship with it. Food, which is material, tangible, touchable and object, was noted as something 

that was out of participants’ realm of control. Sam, a mid-30s university graduate noted, ‘Food is 

everything to us as humans, it shapes our world, our reality and our life and death’. 

Participants were prompted through their engagement with the artworks to think about their own food 

practices and relationships with food. It is well established that tastes and food preferences are socially 

located (Bourdieu, 1984a; Maguire, 2016). A person’s choice of food is influenced by what is 

practically available to choose from (given socio-economic conditions) and available in their 

imaginaries (given socio-cultural and historical conditions) of what ‘healthy’ (or whatever aspiration is 

guiding food choice) can be. In this way, food operates as an interconnected but complex and 

interdependent means of grounding into a social and cultural context (Swartz, 2012; Taylor, 2010). 

While participants saw food as a necessity for living, at the same time, they recognised the significant 

social and cultural contributions food makes to their relations with others in the world and their place 

within it (Harvey, McKeekin, & Warde, 2004). Mellor, Blake and Crane (2010) through their analysis 

of dinner parties of middle class couples, demonstrate how food practices, such as the dinner party and 

what is served, are important to maintaining class privilege. In this sense, changing food habits and 

practices, not only require a rewiring of ingrained social and cultural practice, it also impacts on social 

connections and the everyday structuring of worlds. Participants’ responses suggested they were also 

aware of the way their food choices reflected who they were in the world and food was recognised as a 

way to communicate identity and comments such as ‘you are what you eat’ were shared by many of the 

participants during interviews. The art exhibition provided an entry point into these conversations with 

participants and encouraged an open and non-threatening space to engage with these ideas. 

At the same time, food was seen as agentic in creating and/or destroying health, both to the human 

body and to environments more broadly. This was expressed by Tom when he said:  

Food is powerful in that way and I don’t think we think about that. You just pick up something when 

you are hungry…but it’s very powerful. It can wreck you or build you up. People should think of that 

stuff. (Tom, early 20s, University Student) 

In this comment, Tom calls for more people to be thinking ‘about that stuff’; the role of food in making 

(un)healthy bodies. The exhibition gave the space for themes such as health to be explored in ways that 
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were individualised—where people could apply the themes to their own social contexts, yet importantly, 

the artworks spoke across many of the social worlds of the audience attending the opening night, which 

enabled audiences to find artworks that engaged them to think about their ideas and understandings of 

food practices (Kester, 2004). Schaefer, Biltekoff, Thomas and Rashedi (2016) observe that people’s 

decisions about what to eat are a product of the intersection of their experiences and priorities and what 

they understand to be true about health and food. The exhibition provided a diversity of art pieces that 

engaged attendees in highly personal ways that encouraged thinking about food and their relations with 

it. 

 

4. Discussion 

As we explored the responses to survey questions left by visitors to the art exhibition, we were seeking 

to understand participants’ perceptions of food. We were searching for stories about how food was 

perceived and to create a picture of how food was represented in everyday lives. How does food shape 

their lives and how are they shaped by it? We recognised that participants arrived at the exhibit with 

perceptions and that their experience of the exhibition, and in turn their experience of undertaking a 

survey or interview with us offered potential to create and effect their perceptions.  

While we were interested in how participants experienced the exhibition and the thoughts that were 

prompted by these experiences, we wonder about the potentiality of these thoughts in lieu of the 

research. Would these same thoughts have surfaced for participants if not afforded the opportunity to 

participate in an interview or complete a survey? Would people have ‘reflected’ and ‘dwelled’ on the 

artworks in the same way if we had not prompted them to do so? The socially constructed and 

co-constituted mechanics of qualitative research unavoidably result in an altering of realities of 

participants (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Participants who attended the exhibition to ‘look at’ the artwork 

were encouraged to step outside of themselves for a moment and ‘look inward’ to reflect on how the 

artwork had impacted them. For instance, questions such as ‘How did this make you feel…’ required 

participants to move through an act of feeling and communicate these feelings, both for themselves, 

that is having a self-made understanding, but also for someone external (the researcher). Comments 

such as ‘Gee, let me think about that for a second’ were common before responding to the provocations 

and comments throughout the interviews included ‘…It really made me think.’  

We defer back to Colyar’s (2009) ideas, who suggests that it is only when she has finished her first 

draft that she will understand her own argument and know what to say. In this study, participants were 

undertaking a similar process, working out for themselves and for someone else, what thoughts and 

feelings had been provoked through attending the exhibition. This finding has implications for how 

art-based education can facilitate understanding and how food advocates select and apply education 

about food that has the objective of changing food practices.  

Creating opportunities for audiences to reflect and interpret what the works meant to them, was a 

means of constructing and consolidating thoughts and feelings. In this sense, we agree with Gell (1998, 
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p. 6) when he notes that art objects are ‘a part of language’ and by virtue, require relationality for 

meaning-making to occur. We argue that the very act of researching in this study provided a platform 

for people to reflect more deeply and to find their thoughts, then give voice to them. The opportunity to 

engage in a dialogue about what they were viewing was fundamental to promoting reflective awareness 

and to enabling more complex ideas to surface (Olson, 1992). Using language to engage people in 

provocations for educative purposes, such as food and its role in society, extends upon the ‘viewing’ 

experience. 

 

5. Conclusion 

The exhibition provided rich, creative, aesthetically pleasing and challenging artwork, which audiences 

used to reflect on their connections with food and food practice. We revealed how food was 

interweaved through the everyday worlds of people and how food practices were influenced by social 

location—by habitus. Most participants were able to identify a single artwork that held meaning for 

them, which acted as an entry point to reflecting on their relationship with food and understandings of 

it. We suggest that the diversity of the exhibition enhanced the potentiality of the artwork to represent, 

intersect and provoke thinking about food culture by providing multiple entry points for participants to 

connect with the representations and themes that resonated with them. 

We began this journey with an exploration of how art could be used as a means of educating 

communities in conversations about food cultures. We acknowledge that a limitation of this study 

relates to the limited number of participants, and that those who attended the opening night of 

Imagining Food: Art, Aesthetics and Design were already in some way interested in the exhibition and 

perhaps, were expecting to be thoughtfully provoked. Yet, in this modest study, we revealed how 

habitus influenced the interpretations of the artworks made by participants—even within a group of 

seemingly ‘similar’ individuals. 

However, we do wonder if the interpretations participants made of the artwork would have been as 

reflective, if not for the opportunity to engage in a process of self-reflection through the research? 

Participating in a research project, where reflective questions were asked, was a successful means of 

engaging some people to think deeply and critically about what they were viewing and turn a critical 

eye onto themselves. Overall, we found that asking inquisitive questions encouraged people to reflect 

on their understandings. 

With this in mind, we surmise that exhibitions can be used to create spaces for self-reflection about 

societal and personal food practices. We found that deliberative communication and provocation 

deepens engagement and opens new pathways for meaning-making, and one which food activists and 

educators and exhibition/gallery curators aiming to cultivate critical thinking about the self and world 

may find generative. 

In sum, we suggest that there are generative possibilities for food activists and educators to work 

alongside artists in innovative ways to create artworks that provoke and stimulate reflection on food 
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practices—the challenge however, is ensuring exhibitions or displays are located in public spaces that 

are accessible across socio-cultural groups. Finally, curators cannot assume that audiences will 

contemplate artworks, rather, opportunities to engage in conversation as a way to process and think 

about what the artwork means, should be built into exhibition design. 

 

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	Original Paper
	Exploring Food Cultures through Art: Meeting People Where They Are at
	Kim Beasy1* & Leah Page1
	1 University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia
	Abstract
	Engaging people in critical conversations about food practices is often challenging. In this paper, we explore how an exhibition was used as an educative site to explore food insecurity and food cultures and to promote food ethics and healthy eating. ...
	Keywords
	References

