A woman is marvelling at the bright blue frosting above her head. “How do you pipe icing on a ceiling?” she asks. It is one of many fantastical questions I hear while wandering through Bobby Baker’s An Edible Family in a Mobile Home. Almost 50 years after its original installation, Baker’s show-stopping feminist artwork is back – this time on the south lawn outside the Tate Britain. “Who baked Coconut Cake Baby?” is another question I overhear.
The big question, though, is how does a family made of flour, eggs and sugar end up outside of the Tate? Baker was invited to restage her seminal installation as part of the museum’s Women in Revolt! show, which opens this week and offers the first major survey of feminist art in the UK, with Lubaina Himid, Sonia Boyce and Mona Hatoum featuring on a lineup of over 100 artists. Baker’s work, situated outside the museum’s entrance, is the amuse bouche.
