Bittersweet Politics: A Panel Discussion About Fair Trade February 7, 2007

FREE

Join us for a conversation about critical aspects of the production, distribution and consumption of chocolate in relation to our current installation on view, Free Chocolate by Bay Area conceptual artist April Banks.

Panelists include Tex Dworkin from Global Exchange, a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world; Elizabeth Bertani from TransFair USA, one of twenty members of Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO), and the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the U.S.; and Tom Neuhaus, president and founder of Project Hope and Fairness and the owner of Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates.

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INTERSECTION FOR THE ARTS
the gallery at intersection

Free Chocolate
by April Banks
Dec 6, 2006 - Feb 17, 2007
Gallery Hours:
Tues by appt, Wed - Sat, 12 - 5pm

We love chocolate. As the world's largest chocolate consumer, the U.S. imported 729,000 tons of cocoa beans/processed products in 2000, ate 3.3 billion pounds of chocolate, and spent $13 billion on it. Yet, the majority of cocoa producers around the world struggle with poverty and, even after years of cultivating and harvesting cacao trees, many have never tasted a piece of chocolate. Based on research and travel to cacao farms in Ghana and Cuba and to the New York Board of Trade, Bay Area conceptual artist April Banks' first solo exhibition explores cocoa's global journey from farmer, to trader, to chocolate lover. This layered installation illuminates our desire for beauty, sweetness, indulgence, and intoxication within the context of issues of globalism, fair trade and sustainability. Tracing the complex way in which we participate in global economies, Banks juxtaposes the basic human need, desire, greed, and guilt that drive our structures of consumption.

Official Website: http://www.theintersection.org