A Thousand Lunches
Roger Jessup Park, Pacoima, Council District 7
Artist's Website
About the Artist
Emily Marchand was born in Sacramento, California, and lives in Los Angeles. She received her BA in art from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Selected projects include Solarium, The Pit (Glendale, California) (2019), homeLA (Los Angeles) (2019), nature, red in tooth and claw at the Visitor Welcome Center (Los Angeles) (2018), Genius Loci at Setareh Gallery (Düsseldorf) (2018), Glass Tambourine at the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University (Orange, California) (2018), Leaning Tower of Pisa at DXIX (Venice, California) (2017), soft ammunition at NowSpace (Los Angeles) (2017), and Artists + Institutions at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture (West Hollywood, California) (2012).
About the Art
Emily Marchand uses food, sculpture, and textiles to examine ideologies around survival, communication, and language. Labor and food are integral to the way she operates as an artist and are essential elements in her instigations of conversations about access, class, geography, ecology, and politics. In a two-part public engagement event at Roger Jessup Park in Pacoima, Marchand gathers volunteers from the local community and greater Los Angeles for a large-scale lunch-packing session benefiting local homeless services in Pacoima. The activity is followed by an open picnic—held on an oversized blanket made of compostable fabric embedded with seeds of edible plant— for volunteers, community members, and individuals experiencing homelessness. Picnickers are invited to cut away portions of the seeded cloth to plant and grow their own food. The project encourages discussion of how art can help improve access to healthy food, sustainable agriculture, and assisting those in need.