Tech meets culinary art in what’s cooking

Though various forms of art have been practised for hundreds of millennia, it is only comparatively recently that the role of the artist has emerged. During Classical Antiquity, as well as the era of Byzantium, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque and Gothic art, painters and sculptors were treated as mere artisans – paint-appliers or carvers. Then, during the Renaissance, the profession of artist was raised to a new higher level, reflecting the newly perceived importance of the design element.

Today, painters and sculptors had a new unique status – on a par with architects. For fine artists, this situation has remained largely unchanged to this day, except that they have now been joined by visual artists involved in installation, video art, conceptual works, assemblage and the like. Some crafts are also included under the umbrella of visual art, although most continue to be funded by crafts bodies.

However, food art is always a compelling one, as it demands a lot of talent to be considered as an artwork. Aside from being eye-catching, it must express multiple associations apart from the food itself. It’s not just about food photography, but true food representation, which exerts ambiguous feelings and meanings.

Just recently, Samsung Electronics West Africa teamed up with Rele Gallery to present an unprecedented culinary art and photography exhibition, as well as online competition tagged #TechMeetsArtNG under the theme What’s Cooking?

The exhibition featured the works of two prominent Nigerian photographers, Kelechi Amadi-Obi and Ade Asiko Okelarin, who drew inspiration from Nigerian cuisine created by three leading chefs, Tiyan Alile, Ozoz Sokoh (Kitchen Butterfly) and Dunni Obata (Dooney’s Kitchen). Collectively, they explored artistic presentation of indigenous foot, its social, cultural context and documenting it as an art form. The coming together of these creative worlds was brought to life with the help of interactive and exciting cutting-edged technology of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge Smartphone as captured by the photographs.

The winning work.

For the first time ever, Nigerian cuisines were documented as an art piece, to inspire experimentation and exploration of the possibilities. And once again, technology proved to be an important, reliable partner in establishing this narrative.

The exhibition was preceded by an online culinary art contest, which attracted over 300 entries from across the country and produced three winners, who were announced at a private viewing event to mark the beginning of the four-week exhibition at the gallery in Lagos.

The Food Art competition engaged talented Nigerians from all over the country trying their hands at culinary artistry by creating an original work of art, using real food in line with the exhibition theme. The entries were uploaded online by participants and were judged by a reputable panel of chefs and photographers based on published guidelines.

The overall winner of the competition, Ms. Haneefah Adam, a medical scientist and lifestyle blogger, whose work depicted the portrait of the African woman with ingredients of the Southeast Nigerian delicacy, was rewarded with Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S7 Edge smartphone, and had the winning picture displayed at the Rele Gallery. Second and third runners-up were also rewarded with a Samsung Galaxy Tab A and Galaxy Tab E respectively.

Speaking at the Initiative, the Managing Director, Samsung Electronics West Africa Paul Lee, observed that art and technology derive strength and inspiration from one another.

“Hosting a competition among chefs is logical as cooking is also a form of art. Technology and art have had an unfamiliar relationship over the years with many people wondering what the nature of this relationship is. With this novelty, Samsung is rebooting the relationship between art and technology by being a part of exhibitions and initiatives that will foster new collaborations across both disciplines and industries.’’

On the online contest, Director, Information Technology and Mobility, Samsung Electronics West Africa, Emmanuoil Revmatas expressed satisfaction with the quality of entries received.

‘‘There are a number of necessities that are imperative in life and two of them include food and technology. The collaboration between Samsung and Rele Gallery has produced the #TechMeetsArtNG initiative, a platform where technology helps to enhance art on different levels. This year’s theme, What’s Cooking, is all about fusing technology and art as well as food.”

He noted that, “the special culinary delights were brought into focus with the use of Samsung Galaxy S7 edge Smartphone by renowned photographers such as Kelechi Amadi-Obi and Ade Okelarin (Asiko) to capture Nigerian art food created by all three distinguished chefs,” Revmatas explained.

According to Founder & Curator of Rele Gallery, Adenrele Sonariwo, “it goes without saying that technology has shaped and continues to shape the world e live in and increasingly riding this wave is Nigerian cuisine. It has and is having the opportunity to be appreciated on a much wider platform. As we’ve come to discover, food is much more than something we eat, through this project, we highlight that there is an art of cooking and presenting it,” she said.

The Galaxy S7 Edge features a 5.5-inch super AMOLED display screen allowing for clearer videos and images with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 (Quad HD). The series brings pictures to life like never before on a Smartphone with a simple hand gesture. With the dual pixel technology, the auto-focus on the Samsung Galaxy S7 series is quicker, thereby producing sharper and brighter images – even in dimly lit settings.