Open Space Exhibition, AMP Gallery Peckham

Tender Touches – Peckham Ever felt so hungry you could eat the cutlery and the table? Well at this new art exhibition you will be able to eat both.

Tender Touches is an art and food exhibition that will take over AMP Gallery in Peckham to create an art cafe where everything – from the food to the furniture and the tableware – is both a functional object and an artwork.

Open Space, the exhibition creators, will host a series of talks, supper clubs and performances, taking place among new commissions by a group of international emerging artists.

Drawing on the food-based practice of Portuguese artist and co-curator of the exhibition, Inês Neto dos Santos, the exhibition aims to bring people together through food, using it as a catalyst for conversation and debate.

Inês Neto dos Santos, said: “While forming the theme for Tender Touches, we were inspired by many historical references including the artist-run restaurant, FOOD, initiated by Gordon Matta-Clark and Carol Gooden in New York in 1971 and Gertrude Stein’s 1914 book Tender Buttons, which explores multi-sensory experiences in the everyday.

“Food as a medium of artistic expression and social commentary has a long history, and is experiencing something of a revival with a number of recent exhibitions and major institutional shows.

Through our collaboration, we wanted to challenge the formal approach to exhibition-making through the interactive nature of visitors eating together, but also question the dynamics of the exhibition space through the presentation of functional art objects.”

The food menu, designed and cooked by Neto dos Santos, will be inspired by her interest in sustainable food practices such as preservation and fermentation.

A further eleven artists will create new commissions that make up every element of the cafe.