Make a Salad is an artwork by the American Fluxus performance artist Alison Knowles. It has been performed a dozen times at various locations.
Overview
Make a Salad (also known as Proposition #1: Make a Salad) is an artwork by the American Fluxus performance artist Alison Knowles. It has been performed a dozen times at various locations.
Description
In a typical event score for Make a Salad, Knowles prepares a salad for a large number of people by chopping the vegetables to the beat of live music, mixing the ingredients by tossing it in the air, then serving the salad to the audience.
In 2012 Knowles said of her original staging that she was interested in "everyone, eating, not only together but...the same thing. And they usually eat the same quantity, the same portions" and that "The idea of having such a quantity of food served to everyone was...kind of astonishing".
History
The piece was originally performed in 1962 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The inspiration for the piece came to Knowles during lunch in 1962 when she was asked what she would be presenting at the ICA and she responded "Well, maybe I'll make a salad".
