Bobby Baker performance

40 minutes

ICA, London; Arnolfini, Bristol

My Cooking Competes was a performance commissioned for ‘About Time’ – an exhibition of video, performance and installation by 21 women artists, curated by Sandy Nairne and Iwona Blazwick for the ICA in London, then touring to Arnolfini, Bristol. The work was a collaboration between Bobby Baker and photographer Andrew Whittuck, who photographed a series of nine typical meals in the classic style of food photography that the artist was preparing at that time. These varied from baby food for her recently born daughter to a dinner party meal for six. Framed in a row along the gallery wall, the photographs were accompanied by a long table, which displayed the actual meals and included descriptions and rosettes in the style of a village fete. Walking along the length of the wall, Baker described the meals in sequence and her feelings about them, critiquing her experience as a young mother at the time, while awarding herself a rosette for each meal.

Exhibition supported by the Arts Council of Great Britain