Body sushi a smak estetyczny [Body Sushi and the Aesthetics of Taste]

In the last few years, body sushi – the consumption of sushi and sashimi served on a naked body – has been growing in popularity in Poland. Repeated descriptions of such food events as an art form prompts us to look at them through the prism of well-established Western aesthetic categories, in particular, taste. Body sushi is seen as a practice that skirts the boundary between the sensual and aesthetic sense of taste. It contains three key elements: 1) the direct presence of naked people (usually women) in a common space with the audience/consumer; 2) the literal combination of a naked body with food; and finally, 3) the consumption of food. By combining the naked body with food, erotica, and gastronomy, body sushi seems to achieve a form of transgression. However, due to the manner in which this activity is advertised, organized, and performed, aesthetic taste maintains its superiority. Although the boundaries separating the contemplative from the sensuous are unstable, efforts to maintain them, and to enforce gender and class divisions, prove consistently strong.