Pickling isn’t usually seen as an art form. But two out of the three artists in the Vasseur Baltic artists’ award have been fermenting: Ima-Abasi Okon to explore the probiotic benefits of fermentation and Fernando García-Dory to showcase the pickling skills of a local community interest company. Okon’s dehydrated, vacuum-packed pile of oxtail stew with scotch bonnet, ashwagandha, lion’s mane and tulsi is piled up on a cane chair, while jars of produce from The Pickle Palace line the wooden structures of García-Dory’s installation.
Presumably, pickling hasn’t been high on artists’ agendas because visually it doesn’t pack much of a punch. Certainly, Okon’s seated stack is an intriguing, juicy, visceral lump of flesh and guts, but García-Dory’s jars are reminiscent of a weekend meander around Sainsbury’s. The Vasseur Baltic artists’ award – a biennial award of £25,000 (plus £5,000 artist fee) offered to three emerging artists, judged by three other artists – is bursting at the seams with ideas. Wonderful, provocative ideas that question how culture and nature intersect, how land can unite communities, how life can be preserved. It is interesting, but it is not arresting.
