.The idea of associating nature, food, the biological evolution of the individual, and artistic happenings is the defining element of Peter Hutchinson’s work, one of the founders of ecological art and known for conceptual operations based on photographs documenting ephemeral interventions created using food and objet trouvé, which are integrated into landscapes and natural environments. Alongside photographic collages, he uses gouache and handwritten texts that reveal a playful sense of humor and the priority of subjective experience as a fundamental part of his creativity. Pioneer of Conceptual Art and Land Art, Hutchinson, using the mixed-media technique, created two emblematic events: Parícutin and Foraggio. In 1970, Hutchinson laid a line of bread about one hundred meters long along the faults and on the rim of the Parícutin volcano crater in Mexico. Mold grew on the bread for a period of six days, with the color change visible only in aerial photographs of the volcano. Meanwhile, the 1972 installation Foraggio showed the public the documentation gathered during a sort of initiatory and psychedelic journey to the Colorado mountains that the artist undertook with a photographer friend. Hutchinson displayed images of the climbs and meticulously listed the nutritional details of the expedition members, who along the way survived solely on “wild plants, mushrooms, almonds, some grated carrots,” “fresh vegetable salad,” “Monterey Jack cheese, honey, and bread,” carrots, sorrel roots (a relative of rhubarb), and “ripe strawberries,” all while falling victim to hallucinatory visions. It is impossible not to recall Hutchinson’s ecological operations, which reflect a worldview and lifestyle that still contests the values of the consumerist and industrialized society and has its roots in the rebellion of the Beat Generation and the protest movements of the hippie movement.
