BEAUTIFYING FOOD WASTE

In Jean-François Millet’s 1857 painting “The Gleaners,” three women in a cornfield pick what harvesters have left behind, collecting and eventually making use of what would otherwise be wasted. It’s one of, if not the, most famous depictions of food rescue. Contemporary Brooklyn artist Alizazarov is a modern food rescue artist. Her “Waste Not” project began in 2011 when a local paper assigned her an Earth Day story to trail a “freegan.” Using freegan directories, Eliazarov intercepts food shortly after grocery stores or bakeries put it to the curb in trash bags and before it is picked up by garbage collection. Back in her studio, she gives the food two new uses. First, she arranges the tableau; then she eats. Eliazarov’s project has grown beyond still lifes of food waste to working with food rescue organizations, including photographing apple orchard gleaners with the Connecticut Food Bank.

Source: Christian Science Monitor, 3/28/16, Food Waste Artist