Just like all the other senses that we have (and often undervalue), sense of imagination is an important one. In my work I often use imagination to transform realities and translate between concepts in a way that is playful. The projects discussed below are inspired by my ongoing research interests in question of “play”, and are deeply influenced by the Surrealist as well as Futurist movements. In many of them, the focus is on food and eating, as a way of materialising aspects of all perception – i.e. an incorporation of impressions into oneself to become transformed.
Ophelia’s Last Supper (2018) was inspired by Millais famous painting and explores a reoccurring theme in my own work: transformation of the act of eating into a kind of internal journey where the fluid boundaries between our interior and exterior worlds, which our senses mediate between, become dissolved. In this film Ophelia slowly merges with the element of water ingesting the landscape that will later ingest her. The act of beautification by definition surface is through ingestion internalised while the interior becomes exposed.
Sweet Muscle Flexing (2018) “Outside and inside are both intimate – they are always ready to be reversed, to exchange their hostility. If there exists a border-line surface between such an inside and outside, this surface is painful on both sides.” Gaston Bachelard https://cinestheticfeasts.com/2018/07/12/sweet-muscle-flexing/
JOURNEY TO THE INTERIOR (2017)
A multi-sensory, participatory performance involving a feast, inspired by George Bellas Greenough, a geologist and a founder of the Geological Society, London as well as Jules Verne’s story the Journey to the Centre of the Earth. It took place on 21st May, 2017, in Kensal Green Cemetery and Dissenters Chapel. It was conceived and realised by Tereza Stehlikova with the help of a dedicated team of creative people (see below for a full list), who met over the course of many months, developing the concept through a series of sensory workshops. To read more about the experience, in a text by Monika Parrinder: https://cinestheticfeasts.com/2017/06/16/journey-to-the-interior-by-monika-parrinder/
Dinner for Deep Surface Divers (2016)
Can a dinner become the means of transportation into an inner world of the imagination? The film is part of my research into evoking multi-sensory impressions and embodied memory in moving image.
Icelandic Journey (2013)
Multi-sensory participatory performance
The event has been conceived and initiated by myself, an artist and researcher based at the Royal College of Art, and developed in collaboration with Charles Michel (cook and researcher at Crossmodal Research laboratory, Oxford), as well as a team of dedicated collaborators from various backgrounds and with different professional expertise. It was positioned somewhere between being a banquet, theatre performance, and a workshop/experiment. My aim was to create, on one hand, a highly imaginative and complex environment for experiencing food, and on the other, to use food as a means of exploring perception and taking us on an imaginary journey. More about the event here: https://cinestheticfeasts.com/2014/02/09/taste-of-iceland-art-science-and-exploration/
Film based on the experience:
Across the Unseen Sea, 2014
On 24th November 2013, 24 specially selected explorers (and 24 initiated guides) embarked on a multi-sensory dining exploration across the imaginary land of Iceland, in the company of William Morris and F T Marinetti. These are some of the little glimpses into what happened on the night: most of it still remains a mystery to be unearthed while the journey itself is far from over…A collaboration with chef Charles Michel.
MOVING WATER, 2014
An art participation project by Sensory Sites and collaborators Moving Water offered a moving, embodied sensory experience of our biological, psychological, cultural understanding of water through handling sculptural vessels that contain water. Made from sensuous materials such as glass, rawhide, metal and clay, the vessels and the water they contain were exchanged among audience members in an individual and collective exploration. This act of attention and empathy conveyed a poetic narrative about water qualities, ubiquity, use, and loss. The creators of this project are Rosalyn Driscoll, Tereza Stehlikova and Anais Tondeur. Collaborators include Shelley James, Josh Ward, Kathy Crick, Kay Syrad, Claire Petitmengin, and CenSes, a network of neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers based at University of London who are investigating sensory experience: philosophy.sas.ac.uk/centres/censes This project is supported by Encounter Fine Arts.
Tereza Stehlíková 