Preach it, Brother Bacon! Testify! Can I get a Hallelujah?
Posted on 06/03/2004 3:09:11 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Brooklyn cheese artist installs bed of ham Thursday June 03, 2004 By DESMOND BUTLER Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) An artist best known for decorative cheese has broadened his palette, or palate, to ham.
Brooklyn-based Cosimo Cavallaro, who once repainted a New York hotel room in melted mozzarella, has begun covering a bed in Hormel. ``I feel like I am back in my mother's deli,'' the artist said Thursday.
Cavallaro's installation in a street-level gallery space of the Roger Smith Hotel in midtown Manhattan involves slicing 312 pounds of ham and laying it down in an elegant four-poster bed.
The installation, which took 3{ hours, will be kept in the air-conditioned room for two days.
According to the artist, no concern about cockroaches has been raised. ``They are welcome,'' he said. ``Imagine what this looks like from the point of view of an insect.''
He added that his cheese exhibits had never attracted a mouse. ``Too much cheese,'' he said. ``It would have overwhelmed them.''
At noon, Cavallaro, a burly man with long unkempt hair and a beard who doubles as an award-winning filmmaker, was busy working a chrome meat slicer like one he had used working in his mother's delicatessen during childhood summers. ``I was a good slicer back then,'' he said looking straight ahead as he flipped a handful of sliced ham behind him onto a growing mound rising from the white sheets.
Outside, pedestrians stopping to peer in through the glass on 47th Street were skeptical.
``That's a waste of food, with all of the hungry people in America,'' said Alithea Henriquez.
But nearby, delis were said to be picking up business. ``It does make me hungry,'' said Keuan Mcneal.
Cavallaro, 41, the son of immigrants from southern Italy, grew up in a hardscrabble section of Montreal.
He asked his mother, who still lives in Montreal, not to come to the installation. ``She would want to get in on the act,'' he said.
But his father, a metal worker who died two years ago, was less amused by his work, his girlfriend said.
``His father never let him play,'' said longtime girlfriend Sarah Jacobs. ``That's why he started with the cheese. He's an ironist.''
Sliced ham, Cavallaro said, is ``a pure form of America: all kinds of parts, boiled and pressed together.''
Despite his training in an Italian art school, Cavallaro said he had rejected Prosciutto. ``It would have been pompous,'' he said.
He also shelved an idea to do ham and eggs as ``too pretentious, too thought out.''
But he said he thinks he will always come back to food as a medium. ``The smells bring you back to unexpected places,'' he said. ``It's very special.''
Gallery director Matthew Semler said he booked the exhibit for the fun of it. ``This isn't work, it's play. That's was Cos does,'' he said, referring to the artist.
Cavallaro says his cheese period ended two years, after he had sprayed 5 tons of pepper jack over a vacant bedroom in Powell, Wyo.
``I was cloaking myself in cheese. I had started getting comfortable,'' he explained. ``I always need new boundaries.''
The moose had no comment.
Ping. You know what to do.
"Get me Ham on Five, hold the Mayo."
IS A NUT JOB.
He must also be a NY HilZeBeast Loving-Limo-Liberal-Socialist DEMON-RAT.
He'd better watch out...the DEMON-RATS like HAM.
Slurp & Burp.
I invited a chick to my ham-lined bed. She just gave me a glazed look.
Then she said to call her back when there was some real beefcake in it.
Please tell me that this insanity is not being funded with taxpayer $.
We should ship this off to Abu Grab. Prisoner accomodations please!
It just goes to show you that you don't have much bread and so you can't cut the mustard.
The beard is actually Michael Moore.
Get some Miracle Whip?
This is hilarious, thanks so much for posting. I can't wait to read it out loud to my husband and sons!
Uh-oh . . . someone's channeling f.Christian again. Time to switch to decaf! ;)
She made fun of my tiny cocktail sausage, too.
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