Gaggenau Girl with a Garlic Earring

This was a wonderful challenge particularly as the food needed to stay fresh, vibrant and still be edible at the end of the event so the produce could be eaten.

I designed a twist on the iconic Johannes Vermeer painting Girl with a Pearl Earring that I had recently been to see at the Mauritshuis collection in The Hague, instead of a pearl earring my artwork had a garlic earring made from several bulbs of garlic.

The artwork size was 300cm x 150cm, made in 6 pieces for easy transportation from my studio to the event venue. It had to be designed so it could fit through doors and then be able to be positioned vertically on a wall without any issues or things falling off.

After some experimentation we came up with the idea of using a foam fronted set of boards that could be seamlessly screwed together onsite on the wall, and the fresh produce could be attached with food safe pins and skewers into the foam.

Using fresh cabbage leaves we were able to almost paint with the foods and create some lovely colours and shading. Keeping the artwork hydrated was essential and this was achieved by lightly spraying with water.

The foods used were lots of savoy cabbages, baby potatoes, cauliflower florets, aubergines, red onions, yellow plum tomatoes, red cabbage, white cabbage, radishes, sprouts, black grapes, parsnips, and bulbs of garlic.

After the event all of the produce was washed and made into cabbage and cauliflower soup, and the aubergines were sliced and grilled to make lots of aubergine parmigiana.

Links to articles about the event:

• https://www.gaggenau.com/gb/experience/news-and-events/meet-our-masterpiece
• https://www.gaggenau.com/gb/experience/inspiration/gaggenau-x-lux
• https://www.lux-mag.com/gaggenau-x-lux-artistry/