Mouthfeel

Description:

Mouthfeel was an exhibition presented by Big Rock Candy Mountain that centred on the mouth as a means of aesthetic perception and production. The opening took place on Halloween night, alongside the launch of QA CHEW’s BUBBLE TROUBLE—a limited run of chewing gum developed with grade six and seven students from Queen Alexandra Elementary School in Vancouver, Canada. 

A long purple table against the north wall of the gallery housed various sticky, pliable, and oral forms representing the research and inspiration that went into the production process for BUBBLE TROUBLE. These objects included two prints from Diane Borsato’s series Artifacts in my Mouth (2003), a brass scale model by Dina Danish of one of the oldest discovered pieces of chewing gum, mineral salt blocks carved by livestock in Eastern Oregon, and chewed gum samples by the students, including their own gum prototypes. BUBBLE TROUBLE was available for purchase for $2.99, with proceeds donated to Queen Alexandra Elementary School’s art program. 

Exhibition programming included a presentation by flavour historian Nadia Berenstein titled Welcome to Flavour Country.

BUBBLE TROUBLE was a commission of the City of Vancouver Public Art Program, as part of Big Rock Candy Mountain, a multi-phased project initiated by Hannah Jickling and Reed H. Reed and produced by Other Sights for Artist’s Projects through the support of the British Columbia Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Documents:

• Big Rock Candy Mountain: Mouthfeel exhibition brochure (2018). Essay by Pablo de Ocampo.