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Event View, Bake Sale Tea Party, April 23, 2010
Donated Bakery, Catalog/Handout
The 1839 Live Oaks Auction Reinterpreted. It's almost about perfection.
The perfect recipe is, of course, a misnomer. Any given set of instructions is subject to interpretation, a recipe is altered by its context, our relationship to it changes over time. In 1839 the city of Austin was being laid out. The city was being plotted, zoned, and auctioned off to the highest bidder. One of these auctions took place in Republic Square. Legend has it that the auction took place under a stand of live oaks—the auction oaks—a few of which still stand in the park today. People came to bid on ownership of, and in, the future of the city. At that time, the trees stood as backdrop to the enthusiastic, entrepreneurial, capitalist momentum that was forming this country. The spirit of those times continues to have a powerful, symbolic resonance in today’s societal discourse.
But times have changed. Economic upheaval and a fractious political landscape provide new hurdles and/or opportunities. The Perfect Recipe offers an alternative model. Perhaps it’s not really a model at all. It is a combination of familiar events, one could even say “standard cultural fare,” that emphasizes the interconnectedness of the constituent parts, all the while creating its own agency. The project raises money in order to give it away. It solicits participation on many levels–and is beholden to community engagement, in many senses, for success.
In another sense, the project combines both means and end not to assert perfection but to questions its relationship to the here and now. The Perfect Recipe quests for self-sufficiency with an earnest but self-aware pragmaticism. This is not utopia, or maybe it is. Situating the project in Republic Square is significant. The project is an updated enactment of an earlier notion of commerce, one that is celebratory, critical, and visionary in tone.
In conjunction with Cook & Ruud and Art Alliance Austin .
The Perfect Recipe is made possible with the support of City of Austin - Parks and Recreations Department and Downtown Austin Alliance..
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Projects I
Projects II / Writing
Articles
Curriculum Vitae
Links
Thanks to:
Cupcake Cafe
Cutie Pies
Sweetish Hill Bakery
Texas French Bread
The Cake & The Spoon
Upper Crust Bakery
Zhi Teas
Christine Wu: Design Intern
Emily Ng: Administrative Intern
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