Although many artists have used food in performance, few are as famously or firmly associated with it as Karen Finley. At the start of Finley's career, almost all of her work was marked by unusual uses of food. Examples include sugared yams dumped over her backside while describing ageist rape in I'm an Ass Man (1985) and the concoction of crushed raw eggs and confetti sponged over her body to analogize social oppression in A Constant State of Desire (1986). Finley intended to channel spectators' excessive emotional and sensual reactions to her extreme, sometimes nauseating uses of food into an indictment of abusive attitudes toward people of marginalized identities. In this sense, the excess of the medium and the excess of the message were intended to correspond, creating a synergistic effect on the spectator.
Banquets are a central part of American political culture, combining culinary and rhetorical “red meat.” These are gatherings for the partisan faithful, aiding in fundraising or honoring electoral victors. As in the case of Joseph McCarthy’s claims of subversives in the US State Department, banquets can be a platform for gaining public notice. However, as gatherings of those with similar mindsets, rhetorical claims directed at a private group can cause controversy when publicly revealed.
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