gromm-nom-nom

December 3, 2019 10:50 AM

Gromm•It is "an [unsettling] art/media project by journalist Paul Lukas, exploring the juxtapositions resulting from the installation of metal grommets in unlikely surfaces, especially foodstuffs."
posted by jedicus (29 comments total)

Ack! Wonderfully upsetting!!
posted by youarenothere at 11:00 AM on December 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

cursed images, the lot of 'em
posted by Cash4Lead at 11:02 AM on December 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

extremely weird, utterly delightful.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 11:11 AM on December 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is really, really great and also giving me some serious heebie jeebies. Laughed out loud at the Grommetini.
posted by cortex at 11:16 AM on December 3, 2019

Knew I recognized the name -- I love Lukas' work analyzing sports uniforms at Uni-Watch.

His grommetted food-stuffs were plugged in his Uni-watch blog a few years back (I must have missed those posts), complete with an angry response. But most interesting to me is the negative-space olive loaf bits here.
posted by Theophrastus Johnson at 11:21 AM on December 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

The grommets set in the oyster shells are gorgeous! And much less unsettling than those in the bits I'd eat. I saw the image coming up and steeled myself for the grommet to be through the oyster meat itself and was pleasantly surprised--and impressed--by the grommeted shells.
posted by carrioncomfort at 11:29 AM on December 3, 2019

i want to wear a string of pancakes now
posted by poffin boffin at 11:31 AM on December 3, 2019 [5 favorites]

however the rest are banished
posted by poffin boffin at 11:31 AM on December 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

the pancakes!
posted by Horkus at 11:35 AM on December 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Paul Lukas is the same guy that published the amazing zine Inconspicuous Consumption back in the 90s. He's been a troublemaker for a while.
posted by ensign_ricky at 11:42 AM on December 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yeah, kind of wishing he went back to the Beer Frame era here (although Uni Watch was kind of nifty).
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:43 AM on December 3, 2019

Uni Watch the independent blog is still going!
posted by Chrysostom at 11:57 AM on December 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I must be missing the "unsettling" part of this. Maybe if the grommets actually went through the food for more of the pictures? Most of them are just "food with a grommet on top".
posted by Gaz Errant at 12:35 PM on December 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

That's right, the zine was Beer Frame, wasn't it? Darn it, too late to edit now.
posted by ensign_ricky at 12:37 PM on December 3, 2019

The ones I find unsettling are the ones where the angle of the photo and lighting make the grommet look like just the entrance to a deeper chasm in whatever food it is. The ones I can just see through don't bother me.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:41 PM on December 3, 2019

Yeah, Beer Frame was the zine. Beer Frame stuff has been collected in the book Inconspicuous Consumption.

(which, yoiks, has gotten a lot more expensive than when I picked it up a few years back)
posted by Chrysostom at 12:50 PM on December 3, 2019

Great, now we can have steampunk swiss cheese.

Are there any foods with Walllaces installed?
posted by zaixfeep at 12:56 PM on December 3, 2019 [6 favorites]

Thank you OP, this is awesome! The final images of the burning marshmallow look like a Borg cube after Picard has had his revenge. Also appreciated the tangential learning of another bit of industrial-complex sabotage, that the holes in White Castle belly bombers aren't actually there to speed up the cooking process (though that is a side-effect), but rather that "the main purpose of the five holes [is] to use less meat — while still charging the same price as before". Overall, would grommet my foodstuff again very muchly!
posted by riverlife at 1:04 PM on December 3, 2019

"food with a grommet on top"

Things I apparently really like: Items (including food) with holes drilled through them and grommets applied.
Things I clearly dislike: Grommets just haphazardly placed on items (especially food) with no corresponding hole.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:14 PM on December 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

I must be missing the "unsettling" part of this.

For me, it's collation of several things: a bit of body horror (even if only by analogy), a bit of general trypophobia, the uncanniness of the recontextualization of the inedible functional grommets into food contexts. How much I feel any of that varies from project to project; the martini olives were just a pure laugh, the dozen eyelets coming out of a potato absolutely push my buttons.

I would assume that feeling would be universal (all of these things I'm reacting to are kind of personal and subjective), but I also am not surprised to be the only one feeling an irrational frisson of yikes in among the rest of the positive aesthetic and conceptual vibes I'm taking from the whole thing. Some of the ones I think are most conceptually interesting are also among the ones I least like looking at, though I don't think that maps perfectly.
posted by cortex at 1:17 PM on December 3, 2019

It does seem like a vague trypophobia is a very common human trait, and that the most probable explanation that has been suggested is that holes in stuff can make it resemble or at least suggest decaying or diseased tissue.
posted by howfar at 1:18 PM on December 3, 2019

I'M HALFLY OF ROBOTICS AND THESE ARE TYPICAL SNACKING OPTIONS FOR ME
posted by Sterros at 1:21 PM on December 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I love it! They look like the food I would imagine being served in David Lynch's Dune. The pictures could be from "Entertaining in the House Harkonnen Style!" Written by Martha Stewart - naturally - cause she is going to outlast every single one of us.
posted by helmutdog at 2:05 PM on December 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Years ago I asked my father to put a grommet on a leather project I was working on, as he had grommets and the tool needed to set them. The result was slightly hammered-looking with definite dimpling that indicated the grommet was applied with some tension and would stay put. None of these objects look convincingly grommeted to me; many show what are clearly half-grommets resting atop a hole dug into the food—not secure at all. And that waffle, heck, that waffle shows me nothing.
posted by kinnakeet at 2:28 PM on December 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Laughed out loud at the Grommetini.

That it is on a Wisconsin-shaped wooden platter is a perfect fit.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:31 PM on December 3, 2019

I can't open this page, and I've tried on two browsers now - is it still up?
posted by Mchelly at 2:49 PM on December 3, 2019

Horrifying. All that repulsive food on those beautiful shiny grommets
posted by ominous_paws at 3:38 PM on December 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

The tongue made me go "eew" a bit, because tongue isn't my favorite food and looking at the photo made me imagine grommets in my own tongue. (Though intriguing: if you spaced them correctly, could you whistle like a recorder?)

The rest weren't gross at all to me, sort of silly and fun. I do hope all the food got eaten after the photos, though; some of it looked tasty.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:41 PM on December 3, 2019

Steam-punk, but for food. (I love that butter.)
posted by Going To Maine at 7:23 AM on December 4, 2019