The Supercake

Sunday, March 31 from 12:30-4:30PM
Trinity United Church
76 Doulton Street, London, Ontario

The Supercake may be the largest handmade banana cake ever produced in southwestern Ontario. For the past three years, artist Eugenio Salas has worked with other new Canadians at an industrial bakery, where, Salas notes: “We spend more time with each other than with our own families, and have developed strong bonds. Despite our differences, we share migration histories and an appreciation for food. During break time and at social events outside work, sharing food brings us together.”

The Supercake reimagines the production line and reconfigures production logic as a way to reclaim artistic agency for Salas and his colleagues. Having set the working conditions for the Supercake’s production, they then collectively determined the flavour, ingredients, decoration, and its presentation to the public. Troy Hourie, a Toronto-based installation artist and set designer, got involved to help with the pubic installation of the cake at a local church hall, a traditional venue for community events and collaborative cooking.

Please join us for cake at this free, public event, which is wheelchair accessible and has free parking. The Supercake is part of Salas’s participatory, process-based project Breaktime/Overtime. It critically examines the culture of food factories, a growing industry in London, Ontario.

About the artist:
Eugenio Salas was born in Mexico City and is currently based in London, Ontario, Canada. By disrupting social roles and dynamics through process-based projects, Salas examines the symbolic places and social environments that unfold as a result of artistic collaboration. He carries out participatory performative actions employing media, print, and cooking. Salas’ previous projects include Snack Pack, a doughnut-based stop-motion animation work reflecting on his first Canadian job as a new immigrant; Tunnel, a sculptural project involving the construction of a tunnel inside an art gallery with a non-status construction worker and gallery curator; YYZGRU, a parcel delivery system designed to exchange personal objects between Brazilians in Toronto and their families back home; and Social Plastics/Nail Party, a participatory performance in a nail salon in collaboration with an immigrant family of nail technicians. Salas owns Papancho’s, an artist-run catering company.

About the set designer:
Troy Hourie is an installation artist and scenographer who has worked on over 300 productions for various off-Broadway, regional and opera companies across the USA, Canada and abroad, including Glimmerglass Festival, The New Victory, New York Theatre Workshop, Cherry Lane Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Guthrie and Classical Theatre of Harlem.

For more information contact Abby Vincent, Communications and Outreach Coordinator, avince5@uwo.ca, 519.661.2111 ext. 87576