Containing both direct and oblique references to the life and legacy of the American artist Lee Miller, Leave the Dishes, Poke the Jelly makes reference to the analogous, alchemical practises of creating a darkroom print and cooking: the smells, the mixing, the practised set of actions. I decided to re-make some of Lee Miller’s culinary creations (published in Lee Miller: A Life with Food, Friends and Recipes Ami Bouhasanne, 2017) and photograph them with reference to the tradition in food photography of “switching” one substance in place of another to enhance the visual representation. It is also influenced by films such as Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski, 1968) and Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (Akerman, 1976), where conflicting expectations of the female body are played out against the backdrop of fertility, domestic labour and the home.

Exhibited at CCA Glasgow, 27th October – 15th November as part of the Intermedia programme

Dishes cooked by Sofie Fischer-Rasmussen

Poster design by Martin Elden