MULTIPLE IDENTITIES OF BORDERLINE CASES IN ART
Jean LinABSTRACT
When the borderline cases of art occur in non-art categories, thedebate of artistic status arises not only with regard to the individual
cases but also with regard to the category to which they belong. Theidentity of the individual case tends to be defined in connection tothe category it belongs to. It tends to formulate that, if the individual
case is art, then the entire category is also art, and if the category isnot art, then the individual case is also not art. Such a view inevitably
hampers the artistic status of works arising from the non-art categories. This article argues that the individual cases and their belonging categories need not be strictly interlocking and that they could
possess multiple identities depending on the context that they arepresent. Thus the point shifts from whether the case is or is not art
in its absolute sense to ‘when’ is it art.
KEYWORDS
Borderline of Art, Ikebana, Molecular Gastronomy, Non-Western Art,
Applied Art, Artistic Identity

The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, No. 65 (2023), pp. 112–119

112INTRODUCTION
The central view of this article is that individual cases and theirbelonging categories need not be strictly interlocking upondebating their artistic status. It will argue that the borderline cases
occurring outside of the art institution could possess both identities of art and non-art, depending on the context or institution they
are present.
While similar claims have already been made, for example, inthe discourse of readymade1, the scope of this article will especially focus on applied arts and non-Western arts. The situation isdifferent between objects such as snow shovels and instances belonging to applied arts such as cuisine. For example, it is unlikelythat snow shovels get mistaken as artwork or that people so frequently want to call them art in everyday situations. On the other
hand, cuisines are often compared with art and are commonly
called art. This is because the categorical notion of snow shovel
and art are contextually distant, while that of cuisine and art isclose. Accordingly, it seems relatively easy for people to separate
the identity of the snow shovel in the museum and the snow shovel
in a garage, while cuisine people are tempted to interlock the identities of the cuisine in a museum and the cuisine in a restaurant.
Many applied and non-Western arts after the avant-garde movement attained a higher level of resemblance to art (the fine artof the West), making it extremely difficult to distinguish them.
Concurrently, the problem of interlocking identities of category
and the individual case is becoming more pronounced. Thus, it isnecessary to reconfirm that individual cases can have multiple
identities. Perhaps this situation also applies to people today,
whose cultural identities are becoming more complex and fluid
than ever. In light of such a situation, this article considers molecular gastronomy and avant-garde ikebana to explore the conditions under which multiple identities arise, in association with how
people could have multiple cultural identities.

1. BORDERLINE CASES OF ART BELONGING TO
NON-ART CATEGORY
1.1 CUISINE AND IKEBANAThe artistic status of food has long been denied in the long history
since Plato until recently. Multiple views support the stance, suchas that taste and smell are inferior to sight and hearing, that foodas the object of physical desire cannot be the object of beauty, andthat cuisine is no more than a technique and not an art.2 It was not

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until the 1990s that the tendency to defend the artistic status offood/cuisine emerged. For example, Elizabeth Telfer states thatcuisine can be a “minor art form.” 3 Carolyn Korsmeyer points outthat food can perform the symbolic function the way art does.4
However, they still concluded that food and cuisine cannot be fineart or art in the full sense.
Ikebana is one of the traditional Japanese geido that is on parwith tea ceremony and martial arts. While the term often translates to ‘art,’ there is a significant difference compared to thenotion of art in the West. It is a discipline centered on training,morality, and manner. The weight is on attaining the establishedtechnique or style particular to each school. The practice is connected to daily life and thus can be practically functional. And
importantly, it has an identity rooted in the traditional Japaneseculture. With these backgrounds, ikebana does not correspond tothe notion of art in the West, such as not serving practical functions, connecting to the historical context of Western art, or being
included in the art institution.5

1.2 MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY AND AVANT-GARDE IKEBANAThe debate on the artistic status of food and cuisine was progres­sed further by molecular gastronomy, the new cooking movement that attracted attention in the 1990s. It employs innovativetechnology to modify ingredients into unexpected tastes andforms. It is also unique in its concept and presentation. Forexample, British chef Heston Blumenthal served the dish Sound ofthe Sea, which instructs the diners to eat the seafood dish while
listening to the ‘sound of the sea’ on an iPod in a shell. Molecular
gastronomy contains many elements familiar to contemporary art,such as multi-sensory experiences, emotional and thought-stimulating concepts, deconstruction and reconstruction of tradition,and emphasis on innovation. Such characteristics have been theevidence to support the artistic status of cuisine. Jean-Paul Jouary
considers cuisine as art by pointing out how molecular gastronomy
succeeds in creating the intellectual ‘distance’ necessary for aesthetic appreciation by presenting food in an unfamiliar form. He
also mentions how Adrià has been invited to Documenta 12 as
an artist and asserts that molecular gastronomy has fulfilled theinstitutional definition of art.6
For ikebana, the wave of innovation came in the early to mid20th century, when the avant-garde climate of art in the West influenced many aesthetic practices in Japan. The new ikebana thatappeared mainly in the early 1950s emphasizes creativity overJean Lin114

tradition. The movement was called zen-ei (avant-garde) ikebanaand became a social phenomenon that attracted the public. Theworks created by the promoters of the avant-garde ikebana weremuch like the works of fine art as they were in the form of collage,sculpture, performance, and installation. It is not surprising that
this new style of ikebana got criticized by many ikebana schoolsthat value tradition. It was also not welcomed by the fine art community in Japan, which viewed it as the outdated practice of geido,apart from the notion of fine art newly imported from the West.
For such reasons, many Japanese art critics at the time denied thatavant-garde ikebana is art. 7

2. INTERLOCKING IDENTITIES OF CATEGORIESAND INDIVIDUALS
As can be seen, the interlocking of identity may occur between category and individual work or creator, as well as between upper category and lower category. By interlocking the identity of category
and individual, one can argue that ‘if the individual case is art,
then the entire category is also art’ or ‘if the category is not art,
then the individual case is also not art.’ I will call this the identity
interlocking argument. There are two major problems with such away of argument. First, the validity of the argument is questionable as it could be used to support two opposing positions. For
example, one can argue that molecular gastronomy and avantgarde ikebana are not art because they belong to non-art categories such as cuisine and ikebana, while another can also argue thatcuisine and ikebana are art because molecular gastronomy andavant-garde ikebana are art. Second, such an argument overlooks
the fact that the identities of the individual cases and their belonging categories are not the same. In the following, I will argue thatthe identity of the category and the individuals belonging to thecategory should be considered separately.

2.1 IDENTITY OF CATEGORY
The identity of a category is a set of attribution conditions. There
are two ways that category A is category B. The first is that category A and category B have the same set of attribution conditions.
Another is that category B has all the attribution conditions of category A. In the former case, it can be said that category A and category B are identical. In the latter case, it can be said that category
B contains category A; in other words, A and B are in the relationship of subset and superset.

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The conventionally or typically recognized conditions that separate art from non-art includes not having a practical function as
its primary purpose, not a work that primarily appeals to lower
senses such as taste and smell, sharing the same history orinstitution as art, and so on. Some conditions for cuisine and ikebana conflict with one or more of these conditions of art, so they
are neither identical nor contained in art. Therefore, if the identity of the entire category should apply to the identity of the individual cases belonging to the category, the individual cases havingroots in non-art categories such as cuisine and ikebana are not art
unless the attribution conditions of these categories are to bemodified.

2.2 IDENTITY OF INDIVIDUALS
On the other hand, the identity of an individual case should be distinguished from the identity of a category. First, when an individual case belongs to a category, it means that the case can satisfy
the category’s set of attribution conditions. Next, we must recognize that the individual cases may satisfy the attribution conditions of more than one category. Individual works can belong tomultiple categories, for example, just as individuals who belong
to the same group can also belong to several different groups.
Third, just as an individual can have as many identities as there
are groups to which an individual belongs, each creative work canhave as many identities as there are categories to which it belongs.
That is, even if category A cannot be category B, individual case
X belonging to category A can also belong to category B, meaningthat case X can have the identities of both categories A and B.
Therefore, even if the category does not qualify as art, it does notfollow that the individual case belonging to it also does not qualify
as art. In the same way, even if the individual case qualifies as art,
it does not follow that the entire category it belongs to also qualifies as art.8

3. CONDITIONS FOR HAVING MULTIPLE IDENTITIES
3.1 TYPES OF CULTURAL IDENTITIES
If one meets the condition of attribution, one belongs to thecategory. However, the problem of who determines the conditionof attribution and how such judgment occurs complicates thediscourse. Under what circumstances, then, is it possible to havemultiple identities? We can get a hint to consider this question by
examining the different levels of one’s cultural identity.

Jean Lin116

When one makes a judgment about own cultural identity, it is often
the culture that one feels deeply connected to in some way, suchas ethnic background, the place where one grew up, or the placeof birth. For example, someone from a Japanese family whogrew up in the U.S. may recognize oneself as both Japanese andAmerican. The judgment of cultural identity depends on self-identification, or how one recognizes own cultural background. This
type of identity is subjective identity.
The situation could be different at the level of objective identity.
Since Japanese law does not allow multiple nationalities, one
cannot be both a Japanese and an American citizen in principle.
Thus, in such a case, nationality can only be either one. By following the set of conditions for nationality stated in laws, any third
person can objectively judge one’s nationality.
The judgment for relatively objective identity has certain
objectivity to the extent of the norms shared within the particulargroup or community. For example, while any Asian-looking
person might be recognized as a cultural insider of Asian culture
in Western communities, the Chinese are recognized as cultural
outsiders in Japan, and the Japanese are recognized as cultural
outsiders in Korea. This signifies that one’s identity as an insider
or outsider of culture is relative to the cultural background of thecommunity one is being judged.

3.2 TYPES OF ARTISTIC IDENTITIESAs shown, one’s identity can occur at the subjective, objective, andrelatively objective levels. Now, let’s consider when the artistic
identity may occur for the creative works. X is art when it is recognized to fulfill the attribution conditions of art. This could
occur at two different levels.
First, the artistic identity of a creative work X may occur at thesubjective level. This is when the individual appreciator recognizes the ability of X to fulfill the attribution conditions of art andtherefore appreciates X as art. It is associable with the aesthetic
attitude theory or artification theory, often discussed in environmental or everyday aesthetics. At this level, anything could bewhenever the individual appreciator subjectively recognizes so.
Second, X may also attain artistic identity at the relatively
objective level when it is recognized as art by a group of appreciators who share particular norms. Such relatively objective artistic
identity can be related to the conventional definitions of art.
While there are views that art is universal and objective, theexpanding notion of artistic value today suggests that there are

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values with access limited to a particular community. Therefore,
it is hard to believe that there is an objective identity of art in a way
comparable to the nationality mentioned above, for example.

CONCLUSION
The above consideration reveals that the borderline cases of art
like molecular gastronomy and avant-garde ikebana may attainartistic identity at the subjective and relatively objective level. On
the other hand, it is reasonable to place more weight on relatively
objective identity since subjective identity can be attained by any
object so long as the individual appreciator recognizes the object
as art. Accordingly, it is inferable that the borderline case of art
belonging to the non-art category attains artistic identity whenpresented within the art institution. Thus, molecular gastronomy
and avant-garde ikebana are art when present within the art institution. However, it does not follow that this would make the entire
category of cuisine or ikebana also art since the individual cases
can possess multiple identities, and the identity of the category
and individual cases need not be interlocking.

Jean Lin118

NOTES12

3
45

Such as Thierry de Duve, “The Story of Fountain:
Hard Facts and Soft Speculation,” Nordic Journal ofAesthetics 57–58 (2019): 10–47. DOI: https://doi.
org/10.7146/nja.v28i57-58.114857.
Elizabeth Telfer, Food for Thought: Philosophy of Food
(New York: Routledge, 1996); Carolyn Korsmeyer,
Making Sense of Taste: Food and Philosophy (Ithaca:Cornell University Press, 1999); Kevin Sweeney, The
Aesthetics of Food: The Philosophy Debate About
What We Eat and Drink (Lanham: Rowman & LittlefieldInternational, 2017).
Elizabeth Telfer, Food for Thought, 58.
Carolyn Korsmeyer, Making Sense of Taste.
MIZUTANI Takashi三頭谷鷹史, Zen’ei ikebana no jidai :fukuganteki bijutsuron = avant-garde ikebana
前衛いけばなの時代―複眼的美術論 (Tokyo : Bigaku
Shuppan 美学出版, 2003) ; FURUKAWA Hisashi古川久,“Geido芸道” in Bigakujiten 美学事典, edited by TakeuchiToshio竹内敏雄, enlarged ed. (Kobundo 弘文堂, 1974),
487.

119

678

Jean-Paul Jouary, Ferran Adria and elBulli: The Art, The
Philosophy, The Gastronomy (London: Andre DeutschLtd, 2013).
MIZUTANI Takashi三頭谷鷹史, Zen’ei ikebana no jidai :fukuganteki bijutsuron = avant-garde ikebana
前衛いけばなの時代―複眼的美術論 (Tokyo : Bigaku
Shuppan 美学出版, 2003).
This point is also mentioned by Nelson Goodman,“When is Art?,” in Ways of Worldmaking (Brighton:The Harvester Press, 1978), chap. IV.

Multiple Identities of Borderline Cases in Art