Curated and produced by Jessica Jane Julius and Erica Rosenfeld, A Madeleine Moment is an immersive exhibition that reimagines the boundaries between the kitchen and the studio, revealing how both function as spaces of labor, intimacy, and transformation. Featuring works by over 40 artists working across glass, ceramics, fiber, painting, drawing, photography, food, and mixed media, the exhibition focuses on the collective narratives that emerge through food- reflecting on tradition, politics, culture, and communal identity.
A Madeleine Moment frames shared meals and shared studios as sites of communion and ritual. The exhibition gets activated with a one-night-only community-centric performance in the glass studio, featuring ephemeral hot glass sculptures and flame-based cooking tools, culminating in an edible installation in the gallery where food becomes both material and metaphor. What remains after the deconstruction and communal consumption of the installations is a transformed landscape that serves as an artifact and archive of gathering and exchange.
Julius and Rosenfeld’s collaborative practice draws on nearly two decades of creating participatory, food-based installations that merge performance, ritual, and material exploration. In A Madeleine Moment, they offer a platform that is both grounded and expansive, rooted in glass and its traditions, yet reaching outward to invite audiences into a multisensory dialogue about nourishment, belonging, and the idea of community as both sharing resources but also obligation.
Participating artists:
Nicole Berger, Jane Bruce, Liv Chiaravalli, Amber Cowan, Deborah Czeresko, Sienna DeGovia, Einar and Jamex De la Torre, Sienna DeGovia, Andrea Dezsö, George Dielman, Tyson Julius Eigo, Shuhei Fujii, Paul Gagner, Leckie Gassman, Sam Geer, Benedict Haener, Adam Holtzinger, Jessica Jane Julius, Eriko Kobayashi, Malcolm Kriegel, Matt Leines, Shari Mendelson, Cedric Mitchell, Jen Monroe, Jessi Moore, Paige Morris, Dena Pengas, Amy Ritter, Erica Rosenfeld, Julia Rothman, Alexandra Rubinstein, Pam Sabroso, Michiko Sakano, Emma Salamon, Susan Špiranovic, Megan Stelljes, Leo Tecosky, Kim Thomas, Jessica Tsai, Sam Van Aken, Claire Webb, and Crys Yin.
These videos document the activation event for A Madeleine Moment, an immersive, one night only communal gathering that transformed the gallery into a site of exchange, ritual, and sensory experience. Centered around a five course meal of edible sculptural installations, the event invited guests to participate in the slow deconstruction of artworks through acts of gathering, serving, and communal consumption. As food disappeared, layered environments of glass, found materials, performance, and collaborative making were revealed, emphasizing the fleeting nature of shared experience and the ways in which nourishment can function as both material and metaphor.
Featuring edible sculptures created through collaborations between artists across disciplines, the activation blurred the boundaries between performance, dinner party, and installation. More than documentation of an event, this video captures a temporary landscape shaped through appetite, interaction, and collective presence, revealing how art can create spaces for intimacy, generosity, and community.
Since 2007, The Burnt Asphalt Family has developed an evolving body of experimental techniques for cooking within the hot glass studio. Blurring the boundaries between performance, craft, sculpture, and hospitality, their work explores the glass studio not only as a site of production, but also as a place for nourishment, ritual, and communal gathering. Through years of experimentation, they have developed methods including doming, annealer baking, grilling on slabs of hot glass, steaming, glory hole roasting, smoking, hot glass tube searing, extruded chamber cooking, sculptures that breathe fire, and the use of sculpted hot glass tools for heating and preparation.
These techniques have been refined through live performances where spectacle and sustenance unfold simultaneously. Working alongside hot glass demonstrations, large scale installations, and audience interaction, the preparation and serving of food becomes part of the performative environment, transforming acts of cooking into moments of surprise, care, and exchange. Equal parts experimentation and precision, the work reflects an ongoing commitment to perfecting recipes specifically designed for the unique conditions of the glass studio.
Among their signature offerings are favorites such as Chicken Tower, domed herb smoked meats, grilled asparagus and seasonal vegetables, smoked dishes, and an ever evolving menu shaped by site, audience, and event. In these performances, food becomes more than sustenance. It functions as sculptural material, social connector, and catalyst for gathering, creating experiences where heat, labor, risk, and generosity merge into participatory acts of shared celebration.
