Best if used by… is a series of line drawings commercially printed onto everyday food-safe dinnerware. This piece focuses on the array of food packaging found in our supermarkets. Most of the foods available to us are packaged and we purchase our foods based on how they are wrapped and on the information provided on that wrapping. As anthropologist Donna Gabaccia argues: “Massed-produced foods intended to be prepared or eaten quickly are considered ‘American’ around the globe. What makes foods American…is how they are produced, packaged, and served, not who manufactures or eats them or how they taste.” The ability for daily use allows this piece to enter directly into the context of our meals, thus not only commenting on our daily routines but actually becoming a part of these routines.
Food-safe dinnerware
Place setting
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Dinner plate
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Dinner plate
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Dinner plate
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Dinner plate
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Dinner plate
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Salad plate
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Salad plate
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Salad plate
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Salad plate
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Bowl
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Bowl
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
2008
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Bowl
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Cup and saucer
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Cup
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Cup
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Cup and saucer
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Cup and saucer
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
2008
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Saucer
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Saucer
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
2008
Food-safe dinnerware
Place setting
2008