Sonja Alhääuser's Sweet Installations

Abstract

Don9t we visit museums to look at art, not 9heaven forbid9 to smell it, salivate at it, and eat it? Don9t we arrange our sculptures on pedestals, and contemplate aesthetic at arm9s length? German artist Sonja Alhuser thumbs her nose at such convention. She makes sculptures from sweets, and gleefully invites us to devour them. Soon, chocolate crumbs litter the gallery floor and her sculptures are reduced to rubble. There9s an alluring naughtiness to this endorsed destruction-by-consumption of art in such an elegant setting. But as we nibble, aren9t we contradicting the museum9s mission to preserve and honor art? Haven9t we dismantled the museum-goer9s role as observer? Alhuser9s gradually disappearing sculptures prompt us to question traditional beliefs and expectations about art9s immortality and its function in museums. By instructing us to eat (and alter) her work, Alhuser relinquishes aesthetic control, and denies the dictum that great art is perfect as is. Instead, she lures us with chocolate9s evocative and nostalgic aromas, and asks us to participate in her work and its destruction. We are no longer mere observers, but have been invited inside.