The Forgotten Table
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Artist: Emma Anna & Martin Martini
Title: The Forgotten Table
Year: 2021
Materials:wastepaper, white oyster mushroom spawn and burlap.
The Forgotten Table is the first collaborative site-specific installation from artists Emma Anna and Martin Martini an experiment to bring to fruition their shared love of food, poetry, and Australian humour; elements that often come together in communion at the family dining table. This is an offshoot of their work for Belly of the World Mushrooms / bellyoftheworldmushrooms.
This artwork is a site specific installation and is Not For Sale
Title: The Forgotten Table
Year: 2021
Materials:wastepaper, white oyster mushroom spawn and burlap.
The Forgotten Table is the first collaborative site-specific installation from artists Emma Anna and Martin Martini an experiment to bring to fruition their shared love of food, poetry, and Australian humour; elements that often come together in communion at the family dining table. This is an offshoot of their work for Belly of the World Mushrooms / bellyoftheworldmushrooms.
This artwork is a site specific installation and is Not For Sale
1 available
Originally envisaged as ‘a magical, engaging and sensory experience for audiences set upon an abandoned table beneath the cottonwood trees’, neither artist had any idea if their vision of the project would actually work. The table as a metaphor for communion and the sharing of food was a central point around which many of the ideas of Martin and Emma connected alongside concerns around nature, recycling and regeneration. A shared love for the rhythm of words, poetry and absurdist humour was inevitable to the ideas mix and driven by a Fluxus-like belief that the impossible is in fact possible. A desire to challenge perceptions, and to present new ways of thinking and being in the world, is what underpins this collaboration.
What began as a project to push at the boundaries and experiment with growing edible mushrooms outdoors soon born fruit. A documentary film made onsite during the inoculation phase captured Martin contemplating many of the ideas that had seeded thinking around the project. While skeptical about the likelihood of the table actually growing mushrooms, Martin is also shown to be dedicated to giving it a bloody good try. After filming this preparatory work, the table was wrapped and left for nature to work its magic.
Several weeks later Martin was able to return to site and observed an explosion of oyster mushrooms upon the table. Having learnt more about process and possibilities through this initial stage of the project, and confident that the table could be bought into fruit for the opening of the exhibition, Martin and Emma planned a second inoculation using wastepaper, mushroom spawn and burlap. But then Covid border restrictions hit with their full force and both artists found themselves locked out of NSW - Martin in Brisbane, and Emma in Melbourne.
Neither artist have been able to return to site since late July yet the table remains inoculated and full of promise. While in a different state of presentation than that which had been planned and imagined, The Forgotten Table resonates with potential. The idea of staging a midnight feast onsite still sits within the minds of the artists’ as a future possibility, and one to be fully enjoyed with friends as soon as feasibly possible.
In many ways The Forgotten Table lives up to its name, yet it also speaks of the often latent creative potential that lives within all objects and things, whether they be rustic picnic tables, fallen branches in the forest, or human beings.
What began as a project to push at the boundaries and experiment with growing edible mushrooms outdoors soon born fruit. A documentary film made onsite during the inoculation phase captured Martin contemplating many of the ideas that had seeded thinking around the project. While skeptical about the likelihood of the table actually growing mushrooms, Martin is also shown to be dedicated to giving it a bloody good try. After filming this preparatory work, the table was wrapped and left for nature to work its magic.
Several weeks later Martin was able to return to site and observed an explosion of oyster mushrooms upon the table. Having learnt more about process and possibilities through this initial stage of the project, and confident that the table could be bought into fruit for the opening of the exhibition, Martin and Emma planned a second inoculation using wastepaper, mushroom spawn and burlap. But then Covid border restrictions hit with their full force and both artists found themselves locked out of NSW - Martin in Brisbane, and Emma in Melbourne.
Neither artist have been able to return to site since late July yet the table remains inoculated and full of promise. While in a different state of presentation than that which had been planned and imagined, The Forgotten Table resonates with potential. The idea of staging a midnight feast onsite still sits within the minds of the artists’ as a future possibility, and one to be fully enjoyed with friends as soon as feasibly possible.
In many ways The Forgotten Table lives up to its name, yet it also speaks of the often latent creative potential that lives within all objects and things, whether they be rustic picnic tables, fallen branches in the forest, or human beings.
Emma Anna is an Australian-born Colombia-based artist well-known locally and internationally for her public art series Wordplay, a project that includes the acclaimed concrete poem, IMAG_NE. @emma_anna_chatter
Martin Martini, artist, musician, gardener, cook and Goonengerry local finds an endless source of inspiration for his work in the local forests of the Byron Shire region. @martinmartiniisinthegarden
Martin Martini, artist, musician, gardener, cook and Goonengerry local finds an endless source of inspiration for his work in the local forests of the Byron Shire region. @martinmartiniisinthegarden
ABC INTERVIEW - EDDY PERFECT
www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/saturdayafternoons/saturday-afternoon/13538006
www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/saturdayafternoons/saturday-afternoon/13538006