Performa 09's 'Creation': A Family Affair

At Jennifer Rubell's "Creation" project for Performa '09, held at the X Initiative in Chelsea: Maria Catalano Rand, Jennifer Rubell, Mira Rubell, a chocolate bunny by Jacques Torres, Archie Rand, and Donald Rubell

Jennifer Rubell pulled off her grand, biblical gastronomic art event on Friday night, galvanizing more than 500 guests to shell their own peanuts, choose their own glasses, mix their own drinks, and put together their own plates of ribs complete with honey dripping from a contraption hanging from the ceiling. For dessert, they got to pick apples (from felled trees) and take a hammer to seven chocolate bunnies constructed by Jacques Torres in the form of Jeff Koons's 'Rabbit' sculpture. Good thing he wasn't around to see guests a smashin'. Ms. Rubell said that Mr. Torres told her, "Never call me again," because the bunnies were so difficult to make.

Well, Mr. Torres wasn't the only one who'd been put out to make this event happen. But wasn't it worth it, just to see Thelma Golden chowing down on ribs?

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RELATED: A photo album from Performa 09's 'Creation' as well as an album from which to order prints

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"Eating is an act of art," said celebrated chef Mario Batali as he dug deep into the peanut heap. "I love eating installations," said the editor in chief of Food and Wine, Dana Cowin. "The most thrilling, transgressive part of this is when you throw your peanut shells on the ground," Sarah Steel said. Don Mullins was intrigued with the choose-your-own-drink adventure: He made himself a rum and ginger ale, in a flute he selected because "it seemed like the weirdest glass with the least volume, so I'll stay sober."

Cocktail hour was, according to the program notes, a reference to the creation of the Garden of Eden; the ribs served for dinner were meant to evoke the creation of woman. Dessert was about the expulsion and fall -- a point tied to the location, which, the program stated, "was chosen mainly for the use it no longer has, as the Dia Center for the Arts. This seemed appropriate for what is fundamentally a story of exile by choice."

Dia-philes may have seemed a bit nostalgic for their space, but then again, it was easy to get caught up in the moment. "I'm hoping there's going to be a food fight by the end of the night," Seth Unger, who runs the New York City Food Film Festival, said, sitting at a banquet table accomodating 100 guests. "The sheer scale is unbelievable. The brilliance is that it forces everyone to immediately drop their guard and interact with one another," Mr. Unger said.

The director of Performa, RoseLee Goldberg, was pleased with the event. "I think in New York, we’re all so sophisticated, and the beauty here is to say we can go even beyond that, to use creativity to be able to seduce people with ideas, with intellect, with food," she said. "In New York, we see so much; there’s nothing we don’t see. You’re trying to trigger creative thinking in a whole new way, and that’s what’s thrilling, to see people responding to this. I’ve seen everybody walking around with big grins on their face. I hope that’s how performers measure their work. I always say, what I care about is that you feel something and that you never forget it. Someone said tonight, 'People are going to remember this for the next 10 years.'"

Ms. Rubell didn't eat at the event, instead circulating among guests, carrying a bottle of water and Ricola cough drops. Finally, with the bunnies demolished and apple cores starting to dot the floor, someone brought her Champagne in a beer glass. The evening had been judged a triumph, and she was able to relax, for a moment or two. At least, until she gets her next catering-art-performance assignment.

"You will never eat at Performa without Jennifer," Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, Performa's new chairman, promised during brief remarks. Next time, Ms. Rubell, please eat!