Diamond Lab
Diamond Lab is a Pop Up Food Art experience developed by Artist and Designer Ryan Foote.
This unique diamond inspired pop up event brings together the creative worlds of Fine Art, Gastronomy, Design and Fashion combining and pushing the luster of installation art, the sparkle of good food & drink and the clarity of one unforgettable experience.
Foote’s Pop Up Art experience transports guest’s into a creative world envisaged by him, from tantalizing Diamond cocktails featuring diamond shaped ice cubes served by styled wait staff with stunning hair and makeup, diamond inspired tables and seats, custom porcelain flatware and food that blurs the line between Sculpture and the culinary arts, think chocolate diamonds you crack open revealing a tasty mousse centre! Every element of this amazing world has been considered and hand made by the artist.
Foote has painstakingly hand made every element from the sculpted diamond table and seats, the crisp porcelain bowls and plates all the way through to the recipes and food grade moulds used to make the edible diamonds.
Launching in Melbourne, Australia in early 2015 then onto various locations around Australia and then overseas.
Like most of Foote's Artwork it reflects upon contemporary popular culture and the emergence of trend culture, taking the form of large installations and event based artworks that create social spaces and unique temporal worlds that engage all the viewers' senses, from taste, touch, scent, audio and of course the visual. Intentionally saturating his artwork with numerous layers, references, seasonal delights, he allows each viewer to delve as far into or experience something completely different to the next person, this process of building up layer upon layer of imagery and concepts has become a key element to his artwork.
Like a diamond with many facets this project has many sides to reflect upon, from the inter play between nature & culture, raw & refined, the natural world & man made and how at times these things can seem worlds apart whilst being intrinsically linked and upon closer inspection one in the same.
The Diamond lab also reflects on Australia’s cultural identity from its historic dig it up ship it off periods of the gold rush to its more recent iron ore boom period. To possibly reframing Australia’s cultural identity from a mineral wealthy country to a country wealthy in creative and cultural industries; from its arts, design, fashion, culinary, to local produce and producers.
These are just two of the many-layered ideas Foote plays within the diamond Lab project.
