Elephant # 39

Although we often think of food primarily in terms of taste, the visual aspect of it is ever-growing. From foodie magazines and health blogs to the countless images of breakfasts, brunches and edible treats that fill our Instagram feeds, the trend for #foodporn and for eating with our eyes is insatiable. Food is rarely just fuel now.

In this issue of Elephant magazine we meet six artists who revel in the visual OTT potential of food, push it to its disgusting extremes, and highlight our ravenous, careless appetite to consume at all costs.

We also feature Encounters with Isaac Julien, Lucy Jones, Kiki Smith, Alfredo Jaar and Anri Sala, and go behind the scenes at Elephant West’s collaboration between the painter Anna Liber Lewis and musician Four Tet. Arwa Haider explores the art of democracy, featuring creatives who interrogate this long-held political structure through music, sculpture, film and more.

In our Paper Galleries we profile the barbaric and comedic drawings of legendary German artist George Grosz, as well as the vibrant, hyper-erotic worlds of Jonny Negron. In Journal, Emily Gosling examines the kitchen’s history as a site of female submission, and highlights the ways that movies have subverted this gender expectation with culinary violence and even cannibalism.

Bon appétit!