Elizabeth Tobias: Let Them Eat Cupcakes

Let Them Eat Cupcakes (aka The Cupcake Project), combines performance, outreach and installation to create a sobering commentary about the scale of hunger in the United States.

During her one-night-only appearance on April 6 from 8-10 p.m., Tobias will barter homemade cupcakes to visitors who share an idea or memory about hunger on an index card. The hunger index cards from the evening, along with cards from earlier iterations of the performance in Los Angeles, Boston and other American cities, will be arranged inside a colorfully lit emergency-relief tent surrounded by images of confectionary sprinkles.

The cupcake is both an iconic symbol of celebration and an ironic reference to ‘Let them eat cake,’ a statement falsely attributed to Marie-Antoinette during the French revolution to underscore the division between social classes.

The residue of the April 6 performance, including tent, lanterns, index cards and images of sprinkles—but not cupcakes—will be on view at UMOCA through May 19, 2012.