Before I Die I Shall Bake a Museum – Louise Waite
For the couple of years, the artist and project manager Louise Waite has explored the links between museum buildings, bread tradition and ritual. Through the ongoing project “Before I Die I Shall Bake a Museum” she explores what buildings exist for the art today and how its architecture resonates with religious buildings. The words “Before I Die I Shall Bake a Cathedral,” are written by the Swedish poet Edith Södergran (1892-1923) and derives from the poem Hope which the project has as its starting point. Södergran writes about the rising dough and how sorry she is that she can’t bake a cathedral. The project examines the actual possibilities of baking a building. Through fragmentary castings of building interiors in the spaces fro art, Waite challenges our sensory and intellectual conception of it. These fragments are then recreated as bread in colour, shape and structure. The project examines the buildings that exist within the contemporary and historical art context which can take the place of the cathedral, through spatial, social and temporary layers. Should it be a museum, another type of art institution, the gallery or maybe the artist’s studio? What happens when the visitor gets to ingest these buildings?
The project is based on Waite’s overall practice through her interest in exhibition design, the role of art in our time and the function and symbolism of bread. The material study explores the intersection of dough and building components through its function, material and idea.
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Louise Waite (b. 1988) works as an artist, curator and educator and is based in Malmö, Sweden. She has exhibited as an artist and curated events both locally and internationally at institutions such as Wellcome Collection (uk), Fiskars Village Contemporary Art & Design Biennale (fin) and Galleri Krets (se).
In her practice, she uses tactile and sensory materials to build interactive and social installations that explore the intersection of material, function and idea. The context in which the work is presented in is reviewed and woven into the design. She has a keen interest in multi-sensory methods, self-organising and affective work. Waite holds a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art Critical Practice BA (Hons) from the University of Brighton (uk) and a degree in project management in culture from Kulturverkstan (se).
Hendrik Zeitler