The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, October 06,'2010 - 5A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, October 06, 2010 - 5A
Marije Vogelzang discusses
her delicious designs in A2
Lucy vWainrign socne releases ner first frl-lengn album on uct. 2
Roche folks The Ark
By ARIELLE SPECINER
DailyArts Writer
Though her family name may
bring her recognition, Lucy Wain-
wright Roche is
certainly break- Lucy
ing out on her Wa.
ownin
In prepara- Roche
tion for her stop
in Ann Arbor, Tonight at
Roche - a folk 8 p.m.
musician known The Ark
for her candid- Tickets from $21.50
ly funny stage
demeanor - spoke with the Daily
about her famous family (half-
brother Rufus, father Loudon and
mother Suzzy Roche), asserting
that they won't influence her as
she blossoms into a new artist.
"We're all in the same business,
everyone is very supportive of
each other. And also, we're all very
different from each other, so that
kind of allows us to each have our
own thing," Roche said.
Since most of her family con-
sists of singer-songwriters like
herself, Roche grew up on the
road, and her nomadic life heavily
influences her songwriting. Her
first full-length album, LUCY,
which will be released Oct. 28,
recounts her days on tour with
her family as well as her travels as
a solo singer.
"There are a lot of different
songs about different places. I
think that's a reflection of how
long I've been away from home for
the past couple of years," Roche
explained.
-While Roche enjoys touring, she
does admit to being homesick.
"I miss being home sometimes,
but I don't think I would trade all
the things that have happened to
me on the road and the people that
I've met," she said.
And shehas metsome incredible
people. Roche has been co-billed
with fellow singer-songwriter and
friend Antje Duvekot at many tour
stops and will be opening for the
Indigo Girls in a few weeks start-
ing in New Hampshire. She has
also shared the stage with some of
her relatives.
"I've been really lucky to get to
open for lots of different artists
and share the stage with lots of
different people and that's one of
the highlights of this whole career
so far," she said.
Though she is just starting out,
Roche has earned a good deal of
praise.
Ira Glass of National Public
Radio compared her to the likes of
Joni Mitchell and Patti Griffin.
Seeming flabbergasted by the
compliment; Roche responded,
"It's so amazing, I can hardly
believe that it was said. I'm cer-
tainly flattered, it's a great com-
parison and I'm honored to be
compared to either one of them."
However, she refuses to be con-
fined to those judgments.
"I think that my personality and
my music is pretty specific to who
I am. There may be parts of me
that's certainly been influenced by
people ... like Joni Mitchell or Patti
Griffin or even my family mem-
bers. But really at the end of the
day, you kind of end up being who
you are naturally, too."
'My Designs Inside
Your Body' looks at
the aesthetics and
culture of food
By PROMA KHOSLA
For the Daily
While interactive art exhibi-
tions are becoming increasingly
popular, few end with patrons
actually con-
suming the ..
pieces on dis- die
play. Among Vogezang:
these few are yAufl m
the designs of
Marije Vogel- Inside Your
zang, Dutch
food designer
and upcoming Tomorrow at
lecturer in the 5:10 p.m.
School of Art & Michigan Theater
Design's Penny
Stamps Speak-
er Series. Vogelzang specializes
in food design, a field in which
artists prepare and arrange food
to be aesthetically pleasing.
Through her catering company,
Proef, Vogelzang simultaneously
creates exhibitions and meals.
"I'm educated to be a product
designer, but I decided to choose
food as my preferred material,"
Vogelzang wrote in an e-mail
interview with the Daily. "When
working with food I noticed that
it has so much effect on the world
around us and ourselves."
Vogelzang considers herself
an "eating designer" rather than
a food designer, because she
believes "food is already perfectly
designed by nature." As an eating
designer, Vogelzang is more con-
cerned with food's origin, prepa-
ration, etiquette, history and
culture. She tries to find unusual
combinations and methods of pre-
paring her pieces, which range
from hors d'oeuvres to full meals. _.
Marije Vogelzang makes interactive art you can eat.
She focuses on the verb "to eat"
and the ways it can be manipu-
lated.
"I work on food related proj-
ects like restaurant concepts,
dinners, hospital projects, inspi-
ration sessions, food industry and
try to make simple creative ideas
that respect food," Vogelzang
explained.
One of Vogelzang's favorite
projects was a recreation of World
War II recipes served to people
who survived the Rotterdam
Hunger Winter during the war.
Though many of the guests were
so old they could no longer taste
food, the look and feel of Vogel-
zang's recipes stimulated their
memories from more than 60
years ago.
"Another one that I like is a
project to get children to eat vege-
tables," Vogelzang added. "I invit-
ed 12 kids to my studio and told
them we were going to make jew-
elry out of vegetables. The main
tools they could use were their
teeth. The children were making
their jewelry and were ... chew-
ing away lots of vegetables that
they stated before they didn't like.
The emphasis was on playing. Not
on eating. Secretly they ate and
accepted the taste."
In her 10 years of integrat-
ing art and food, Vogelzang has'
found that the right eating design.
can benefit the mind and heart as
well as the body. She has devel-
oped her own set of criteria for
her company's eating design,
working with eight points - the
senses, nature, culture, society,
technique, psychology, science
and action - to stimulate the
brain and emotions.
"When working with food,
naturally you work with the
senses. But more important is the
story behind it, the story that I
want to tell. Sometimes it's about
where the food comes from or
what it does to yourbody or how
food makes you communicate
and share with your fellow table
guests," Vogelzang wrote.