Synaesthetic Supper
D’Arcy Newberry-Dupé, Emerald Wise and Stephanie Eather.
3 Hour Performance, March 25th, 2023
54 Errol Street, North Melbourne
Featuring:
24 Participants
TableTerrain, by Unmake Studio with Christopher Langton
24 Babu Chairs, by Unmake Studio with Christopher Langton
Foodscape by D’Arcy Newberry-Dupé, Emerald Wise, Isabella Newberry-Dupé.
Charcoal Drawing by Stephanie Eather.
Projections by Laura Syzman
Weavings by Shellie Smith
Photographs and film still overlays of Synaesthetic Supper, produced by D’Arcy Newberry-Dupé have been included in Broad Magazine’s Rituals Exhibition at Gallery 881, Vancouver, Canada.
![Event Capture 01: Shopfront.]()
![Event Capture 02: Surfaces.]()
![Event Capture 03: Consummation.]()
![Event Capture 04: Capture.]()
![Aftermath, TableTerrain the day after supper.]()
D’Arcy Newberry-Dupé, Emerald Wise and Stephanie Eather.
3 Hour Performance, March 25th, 2023
54 Errol Street, North Melbourne
Featuring:
24 Participants
TableTerrain, by Unmake Studio with Christopher Langton
24 Babu Chairs, by Unmake Studio with Christopher Langton
Foodscape by D’Arcy Newberry-Dupé, Emerald Wise, Isabella Newberry-Dupé.
Charcoal Drawing by Stephanie Eather.
Projections by Laura Syzman
Weavings by Shellie Smith
Photographs and film still overlays of Synaesthetic Supper, produced by D’Arcy Newberry-Dupé have been included in Broad Magazine’s Rituals Exhibition at Gallery 881, Vancouver, Canada.
Synaesthetic Supper was a dinner party and performance hosted in the Errol Street Residency over a three hour period.
The below text is an excerpt from an essay detailing the project, written for publication in Doubt by D’Arcy Newberry-Dupé.
HOST
Origin - Latin, derived from the following words:
hospes (host)
hospit (guest)
hostis (stranger, enemy)
hostia (victim)
Definitions:
What is it to host? By the measure of the above entomologies and definitions, that track from person to place, ephemeral presence to bread, guest unto enemy, stranger to victim, we find ourselves in constant negotiation with the presence of an ever-evolving host.
This negotiation, and the realms and roles of the host are the site of inquiry for the following series of actions and events that draw into and explore the ritual of hosting as a shared, and mutually defining practice.
The worlding for this project begins with the loci for the residency, the Tableterrain. This landing site, is the site for a mapping ground that captures the design actions of the hosting practice: the preparation of the space, the presentation and performance of the food to be consumed, the consummation, the aftermath and mess made, the erasure and cleansing.
A layered thick drawing, in the form of a foodscape is envisaged, a dinner party for 24 participants, curating people and place and bread.
The table is set, recipes are recalled (another form of host, holding stories, memories and histories).
100 tacos are hand rolled, pressed and baked on site.
Mounds of fragrant rice reflects the opposite of the pit it is pressed into and cast back onto the surface as solid.
Snaking streams of scallion oil wind through ethereal clouds of micro planed Manchego that melt on touch as they feather onto the hot oozing black bean.
The capture of the consummation is hosted in parallel – as we draw in food, our collaborator Stephanie Eather draws with charcoal in elevation, 8 metres of paper pinned vertically to the adjacent wall mirror the tables horizontal length. Over the course of the three-hour event, her focus is the living bodies in the room. The tilt of their necks as they listen, the flutter of hands as they pass and reach and plunge into my thick drawn medium. Eather’s practice is dedicated to observational, mimetic drawing produced through a dynamic flow state séance between self and subject. The final panel capturing site, bodies and event in a tangle of living marks.
The aftermath and erasure of the event folds in another layer, the landscape twice consumed that we discover in the morning. Scraps and smears and fragments scattered across the body-site.
The table is stripped, and hot water poured and sponged across its unruly surface, spilling onto the floor. An hour is spent as we cleanse the site, working our way along it length, carefully bathing each pit, pool, platform and ridgeline.
The space returned, ready to host again.
The below text is an excerpt from an essay detailing the project, written for publication in Doubt by D’Arcy Newberry-Dupé.
HOST
Origin - Latin, derived from the following words:
hospes (host)
hospit (guest)
hostis (stranger, enemy)
hostia (victim)
Definitions:
- a person or group who receives or entertains other people as guests.
- an animal, plant or body of tissue on or in which a parasite or commensal organism is harboured, or lives.
- ARCHAIC an army. In biblical terms, a reference to Angels.
- a portion of bread consecrated in the Eucharist. (Holy communion in Christian Churches).
- a hardware device that has the capability of permitting access to a network. (Digital).
What is it to host? By the measure of the above entomologies and definitions, that track from person to place, ephemeral presence to bread, guest unto enemy, stranger to victim, we find ourselves in constant negotiation with the presence of an ever-evolving host.
This negotiation, and the realms and roles of the host are the site of inquiry for the following series of actions and events that draw into and explore the ritual of hosting as a shared, and mutually defining practice.
The worlding for this project begins with the loci for the residency, the Tableterrain. This landing site, is the site for a mapping ground that captures the design actions of the hosting practice: the preparation of the space, the presentation and performance of the food to be consumed, the consummation, the aftermath and mess made, the erasure and cleansing.
A layered thick drawing, in the form of a foodscape is envisaged, a dinner party for 24 participants, curating people and place and bread.
The table is set, recipes are recalled (another form of host, holding stories, memories and histories).
100 tacos are hand rolled, pressed and baked on site.
Mounds of fragrant rice reflects the opposite of the pit it is pressed into and cast back onto the surface as solid.
Snaking streams of scallion oil wind through ethereal clouds of micro planed Manchego that melt on touch as they feather onto the hot oozing black bean.
The capture of the consummation is hosted in parallel – as we draw in food, our collaborator Stephanie Eather draws with charcoal in elevation, 8 metres of paper pinned vertically to the adjacent wall mirror the tables horizontal length. Over the course of the three-hour event, her focus is the living bodies in the room. The tilt of their necks as they listen, the flutter of hands as they pass and reach and plunge into my thick drawn medium. Eather’s practice is dedicated to observational, mimetic drawing produced through a dynamic flow state séance between self and subject. The final panel capturing site, bodies and event in a tangle of living marks.
The aftermath and erasure of the event folds in another layer, the landscape twice consumed that we discover in the morning. Scraps and smears and fragments scattered across the body-site.
The table is stripped, and hot water poured and sponged across its unruly surface, spilling onto the floor. An hour is spent as we cleanse the site, working our way along it length, carefully bathing each pit, pool, platform and ridgeline.
The space returned, ready to host again.