Tobias Fike & Matthew Harris
Food Fight
2013
Still from Food Fight, 2013
Facing one another, each projection screen of the work Food Fight respectively features Tobias Fike and Matthew Harris preparing multi-course meals at a kitchen counter. As the artists dice, mix and plate meals, they begin throwing food at each other—the scene rapidly turning into a battlefield made of food projectiles, broken glasses, and dirty settings. Disruptive, playful, and aggressive, the protagonists’ actions fuse the spontaneity and innocence of children’s games with the force and reality of adults. Positioned in-between opposite projection screens, visitors become immersed in this conflict that is unfolding in a space where virtual and physical planes overlap.
Artists Tobias Fike and Matthew Harris regularly work together on collaborative projects. Encompassing video, performances, and other mediums, their collective work explores the relationships between forms and energies, as well as the concepts of play, performance, and masculinity. Fike’s individual work explores a range of notions, from concepts of family, place, and grief, to our temporal relationship with the universe and observations of time through an autobiographical lens. Matthew Harris’ sculpture-centric practice challenges the illusions constructed by social media platforms, inviting viewers to rethink how they deal with the reality of imperfection.