devour
Food. Music. Art. Performance.
a fully curated,
hands-on incubator for ideas about culture
CHRONICLES
Sugar & Salt
December 2014
Chefs Giovanni and Sonia, from Recologie's Vistro Café, delivered a feast for the senses using the theme of Sugar & Salt to inspire a selection of empanadas, yucca/chickpea fritters, and a dessert of chocolate cake with cayenne and salt.
The audience participated in Random Poetry, and in the creation of a Grayscale. Steve Pascuzzi sat in on guitar, with Greg on percussion and Chris also on guitar/ percussion.
Mario's performance piece began as a man in a suit with a suitcase, which was emptied of its contents: 50 pounds of sugar & salt. He proceeded to explore the nature of sweetness and sorrow in life, ultimately using a vacuum to suck up the entire white mess.
Greg led a vibrant drum circle with the entire audience to close the evening.
Sfumato
October 2014
Inspired by the Italian theme, Janet Limet Reda, chef from In My Tiny Kitchen presented an assortment of smoked dishes.
Outside on a brisk October evening, we did an action painting with everyone contributing to the layer upon layer of watercolors until someone pinned a rose to the wood panel, and it somehow felt complete—or else we simply stopped.
There was a guest appearance by Lucy, Mario's alter-ego. She danced passionately then frantically to Brazilian rhythms by Greg and the audience, who grabbed every possible instrument to contribute to the sound.
Second Annual Backyard Bash
August 2014
On a perfect summer evening, we held our 2nd Annual Backyard Bash. We can never predict the weather, so just in case, we got a big tent for the front yard, where people were greeted with a selection of Steve's artwork curated by Supawat. An impromtu jam session started in the tent.
Everyone moved to the back deck for gazpacho topped with crabmeat. Alan cooked his speciality: Spanish tortilla, a tasty combo of potato and egg. Wines and IPA beers were the beverages of choice.
Six actor/dancers were enlisted for our performance piece "The Light of My Life" exploring love, family, loss, and the joy of siblings connecting. The dramatic scene was lit primarily by flashlights in the dark of night. Alan, Greg, and Chris worked out a few ideas during rehearsal but mostly improvised while watching the action in the stage area.
Nicole's Sweets raffled three cakes: two from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook of Christina Tosi, and the third entirely from Nicole's brilliant baking imagination.
Everyone went home with an original from the "blind" grab bag of Steve's small works on paper.
Year of the Horse/Italian Stallion
January 2014
Rather than New Year's resolutions, Steve started the evening by asking the audience to write down something they'd like to let go of from the past year. These scraps of paper found their ultimate demise later during Mario's performance. With a mashup between classical Chinese music and the theme song from Rocky, Steve donned boxing gloves to beat himself—or rather his brain—into submission, to let go of his tendency to be self-critical.
Wine tasting by Sara. Poems by Drew Lamm. Wild Horse performances by Mario. Shedding something from the past year, we put messages into the horse's mouth, then a dancing Mario threw the horse head into the fireplace.
territories foreign & domestic
December 2013
Sonia Gil joined us via Skype from Rio and presented her colorful, map-like paintings.
First music w/Greg and Chris
China + Taiwan
October 2013
Chris accupressure. Paintings from China and Taiwan.
MORE TEXT COMING SOON.
First Annual Backyard Bash
August 2013
Video projections of Steve's early film works.
Mario performance "Innocence" started with him dragging the possessions of a child down the hill of the driveway, shedding his toys, and climbing a ladder up the tree to fetch some balloons.
MORE TEXT COMING SOON.
Suite: We, Three
June 2013
"You, me and The Great Unknown" was the idea behind a series of paintings that Steve created after the birth of his daughter Nicole. These works are light in touch, strong in gesture, and pastel in palette.
Keeping with the idea of three, dinner entrée was a vegetarian spinach, rice and carrots stew which I got from Turkey. Nicole's Sweets was also a trio: sponge cake with cream cheese frosting and a fresh raspberry sauce.
Mario conducted two performances: a solo piece with blacklight and confetti balloons; and an audience participation piece featuring almonds (a central visual motif for the We, Three paintings).
DEVOUR: INDIA
MORE TEXT COMING SOON.
DEVOUR: THAILAND
MORE TEXT COMING SOON.
DEVOUR: SFUMATO
MORE TEXT COMING SOON.
A.P.E. + Devour
A collaborative event that was planned but never quite came together. Sharing the graphic design by Steve and the Mario photo of Christina Spencer of A.P.E. Fitness.