A good dinner party: Food as a medium for social change

 The last ten years have seen a re-emergence of artists who use food and the participatory act of dining as a platform from which to generate political and social discourse. When it comes to “free speech” it has become apparent that the politically correct mask donned throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s has now been dropped, as witnessed in the escalation of unashamedly racist, sexist and capitalist rhetoric. In the dominant English-speaking nations of the Western world, elected leaders are outspoken in their promotion of intolerant, misogynist and neoliberal ideologies. The world is literally burning and our “leaders” are denying the reality of climate change, building real and invisible walls, imprisoning those fleeing from unliveable conditions and eroding hard-won rights, the implications of which disproportionately affect First Nations peoples, diasporic communities and other minority groups.