at ease under trees

Final Project Evolution

Almost 2 weeks ago I began my cake trials. The first one I made (a small replica of a woman) crumbled when I started to put icing on it. So, being in a state of despair, I slapped together chunks to form a head, which turned out looking demonic since it was red velvet cake.

So, I decided to stick with the head idea-- I thought it was something that would make in impact in the consumer's mind. I also knew I wanted to use the umbilical cord as a metaphor for the nourishment parents provide children through cooking. My friend gave me the idea of drawing the umbilical cord out of icing on the tablecloth while people ate the cake. Looking back on the project now, I would've drawn umbilical cords on the plates. Anyway, I got to look up pictures on google of umbilical cords and feel really creepy about it.

I also did two more trials at school. I had by this point decided to make two cakes--a woman's head and a man's head. I had no supplies at all--I had one heart-shaped cake pan in which I stirred the cake mix, a pasta serving spoon I borrowed to stir the mix, my friend's face towel as an oven mitt, and a tiny blade broken off a kitchen knife which I borrowed to carve the sculpture. I tore a picture of a woman out of my friend's magazine to model after, and the caption next to this woman said "Mom." I started to refer to the sculpture as my mom. When I served her at the Bandersnatch, I took the first taste, biting her entire nose off. I later heard my friend mention that biting is a sign of a lack of voice within the household. I must say that fact is pretty fitting to my situation... I think at this point I arrived at the decision to create a sculpture of the heads of both my mom and dad.

Sculpting my parents' heads, I thought about my relationship with my parents and with relations between children and parents in general. I also was very intersted in the act of nourishing and caring for those depending on one on a daily basis. I typed in "cooking" as a google image search, and the pictures I was presented with are very revealing of the worldwide responsiblity of cooking/family caretaking. I can't recall seeing any pictures where men were cooking a family meal, but what actually surprised me was that the vast majority of pictures were from countries other than mine.

Visiting the original websites of these pictures revealed to me many strict gender social constructions, such as women in certain regions of China being unable to eat dinner in the presence of others at the dinner table. She must remain in the kitchen.

I know that in the US this idea of only women staying at home and attending to the children is opening itself up to males.
Statistics from rebeldad.com:

AT HOME DAD NUMBERS
147,000Census Bureau, 2005 (based on 2004 data, Excel file)rebeldad.com analysis
98,000Census Bureau, 2004 (based on 2003 data)rebeldad.com analysisAlso additional rebeldad.com analysis
105,000Census Bureau, 2003 (based on 2002 data)rebeldad.com analysis
18.5 percent of fathers with working wivesCensus Bureau, 2003 (based on 1999 data)rebeldad.com analysis
1,915,000Census Bureau, 1997 (based on 1993 data)
22 percent of fathersSpike TV survey, via Time magazine, 2004rebeldad.com analysis
80,000 (Japan)Social Insurance Agency, as cited in newspaper reportrebeldad.com analysis
155,000 (UK)Cited in newspaper report, 2004 (story now in paid archive)rebeldad.com analysis
11 percent of fathers (UK)Early Learning Centre, 2004rebeldad.com analysis
MEN CONSIDERING AT-HOME FATHERHOOD
56 percentSpike TV survey, 2004 rebeldad.com analysis
40 percentcareerbuilder.com, 2003rebeldad.com analysis
"Almost half" (UK)Pregnancy and Birth Magazine survey, 2004 (based on newspaper report)rebeldad.com analysis

I believe significant involvement with both parents is very important, and this was reinforced by statistics from the US Census Current Population Report on Custodial Mothers and Fathers and their Child Support:

Children without a father in their life are twice as likely to drop out of high school, twice as likely to end up in jail, and four times as likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems.
(http://www.fathersandfamilies.org/site/infores.php)

Also:

Almost 20% of 6th - 12th graders have not had a good conversation lasting for at least 10 minutes with at least one of their parents in more than a month.
(Peter L. Benson, The Troubled Journey: A Portrait of 6th-12th Grade Youth, Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute, 1993, p. 84)

This is true for me. People's emotions towards their parents are so varied, and usually so strong, so I was interested to see how different people would go about eating the cake (if they would be timid, which cake they would choose, and what part of the head they would eat).

The concepts behind this project are flowing at me now.

posted by kristine @ 5:42 PM