Art in the Supermarket?! It’s so much more than a painting!

This fall, RAC supported local artist Lynn Peemoeller is conducting a “Supermarket Artist in Residence” project in collaboration with GreenLeaf Market. Over the course of several months, Peemoeller is to spend time in-house, documenting the interior workings of a supermarket, behind the scenes.

“We all rely on supermarkets to supply us with food, but do we really know how they work?  What do we know about the people who work there? How can we know more about where our food comes from?”

This self-directed project reflects a broader wave of artist led engagement with unconventional spaces like the recently held (2017) artist in residence at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN.

Throughout the fall, Ms. Peemoeller will be present at the Supermarket to generate both planned and spontaneous actions to engage with the supermarket community.    Ms. Peemoeller will also conduct and record one-on-one in-supermarket interviews with local thought leaders on topics of community, food, art and practice based- methodology.

“The artist residency allows me to work on my methodology for artist engagement while spending time in the Supermarket in a reflective and critical way in order to generate a body of work that reflects the role that a supermarket plays in community both spatially and socially.”

“My goal is to produce a so called ‘social-sculpture’ and eventually a publication that represents the multifaceted way that a supermarket draws on ideas of community.”

This is not the first time that GreenLeaf Market has supported artists. You can find art from local NorthSide residents on the walls in the front of the store. GreenLeaf Market hosts a monthly “first Tuesday” celebration of local food and art. Artists stabilize and improve communities, and GreenLeaf Market’s innovative approaches to working with artists create mutually beneficial experiences and a changing, unique, décor in the store.

About Lynn Peemoeller

Lynn Peemoeller is a food systems planner. In her work, she utilizes fields of natural sciences, urban planning, policy, agriculture, food, culture, activism and the arts in a critical social practice.  She uses food primarily as an investigation into questions of identity, culture and place. Lynn aims to stand in the circle of community while co-creating and choreographing situations in which publics can engage in tactile, narrative or performative actions in which we use the symbolism and materiality of food to explore place and identity and create both subjective and objective meanings.

As a planner, Lynn has worked extensively with farmers and farmers market development. She was at the forefront of the urban agriculture movement in Chicago while working as the Urban Agriculture Liaison to the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.  She went on to develop her own practice to manage initiatives to support the development of the regional Midwestern food system through urban food policy, market development and farmer support programs. She taught a course in Food Systems at the Illinois Institute of Technology before moving to Berlin, Germany where she activated her social practice in food systems through collaborations with the Institute for Spatial Experiments, other artists and academics. Currently she is a Lecturer at Washington University in the Sam Fox School and the University College Sustainability program.

Recent works have been featured at E.KA.TE Nicosia- the Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts, The Good Food Festival in Chicago, Artecytia in Thessaloniki Greece, Berlin Food and Art Week, The Science Gallery in Dublin, the BMW-Guggenheim Lab Berlin and the HKW Berlin Anthropocene Mississippi River Project, of which she is also a River Fellow.

Lynn is on the board of Directors for the St. Louis Metro Market. Lynn was a recent recipient of the Luminary Futures Fund for a Community Cookbook Project.  She is currently supported by an artist grant from the Regional Arts Commission for a Supermarket Artist in Residence Project.

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More about Lynn Peemoeller:

www.foodsystemsplanning.com

www.takealeep.com

More about GreenLeaf Market:

www.GreenLeafMarketSTL.com

Download the official press release here: GreenLeaf SuperMarket Artist Press Release