Melbourne Milk Champagne
Read about the recipe and process in Greater Melbourne Milk Champagne [pdf]
Milk Champagne was first made for the exhibition A Time Like This in Melbourne, July 2008. The alcoholic beverage is fermented milk and honey based on the foregone recipes of melikratos or kumis that had been drunk in Soviet sanatoriums as a cure-all (panacea) to improve immunity and aid against consumption.
In researching the champagne production, Wietske pooled together different advice and ingredients from inner city children’s farms, apiarists associations, and vetinary clinics, amongst a range of other sources. The cow’s milk and whey were procured in Greater Melbourne city zone. While the honey came via an urban bee keeper who keeps a network hives dotted across Western Melbourne in a 10km radius of the city centre — a stone’s throw from Melbourne’s oil refineries.
Staged as a milk bar within the gallery, visitors could try the spritzy milk and follow the map of relations leading to the work: the making-of the milk champagne including the processes and whereabouts of collection and preparation.
Catalogue essay by curator Kate Rhodes ‘You’ve come a long way. baby‘ [pdf]
