Unit 3: Food, the Table and Ethics
Art Appreciation · Semester 1 Plan · Unit 3 of 5 · ← Unit 2 | Unit 4 →
What this unit does
This unit treats the table as a place where rules get enforced, not just a setting. It opens on film — Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman — then works through still life as inventory (Heda, the same painting two days running), Leonardo’s Last Supper as a chosen moment, the disorder of Bruegel and Steen, and the Qingming scroll walked along its printed length. It closes on three artists the earlier paintings could not anticipate — Cassatt (domestic labour as labour), Rosler’s Semiotics of the Kitchen, and Weems’s Kitchen Table Series — and the A3 essay. This is the longest unit of the semester.
Dates and span
Dates below may shift if the school publishes a revised calendar for this period.
- Weeks 8–12: Mon 2026-10-19 to Fri 2026-11-20. 18 teaching days / 23 periods, 4 days a week, with a double on Tuesdays. Week 10 loses its Wednesday and Friday to the G11 Juniors Days.
- Screening: Tue 2026-10-20 (double, 90’) + Wed 2026-10-21 (45’) = 135 minutes.
- Autumn Field Trip is either Fri 2026-10-23 or Sat 2026-10-24; the exact day will be confirmed in class. Both readings apply.
- Week 9 (2026-10-26 to 10-30): G12 are out all week at Seniors’ Day. These are four self-contained sessions — nothing carries over and nothing is assessable.
- Mid-term grades are due Thu 2026-10-29, based on A2 plus participation.
- G11 Juniors Days Wed 2026-11-04 to Fri 2026-11-06: no class. Lesson 08 runs over 7 teaching days across 10 calendar days.
- Foreign Culture Day Fri 2026-11-20 — lessons run. The essay is already in by then (A3 sits Tue 11-17).
Lessons
- Lesson 06: The Table as Moral Space — 5 days; the frame, the screening, one meal read as an argument; LB3.
- Lesson 07: The Split Weeks — 5 self-contained days while G12 is away; the your-table reflection; LB4.
- Lesson 08: Heda and the Image of Work — 7 days; Heda twice, Last Supper, Bruegel/Steen, Qingming, the moral image of work on day 2; CS4, LB5.
- Lesson 09: Food, the Table and Ethics — 5 days; Cassatt, Rosler, Weems, A3 on day 4, hyperreality coda.
Student handouts (available 2026-07-19)
The following handouts are the materials for these activities — vocabulary, plain-language overviews, key questions, and prompts.
| This unit | Handout |
|---|---|
| L06 screening | Lesson 1 — Eat Drink Man Woman, incl. three viewing-note questions |
| L08 Heda | Lesson 3 — Heda and Still Life |
| L08 shared meal | Lesson 4 — The Shared Meal · Lesson 4a — The Moral Image of Work |
| L09 Rosler | Lesson 4b — Martha Rosler Intro · Lesson 5 — Semiotics of the Kitchen |
| L09 hyperreality coda | Lesson 6 — Hyperreality + Paratheatre |
The screening
Eat Drink Man Woman runs 123 minutes and is viewed in class or split across sessions. Three questions carry across the split: how food works as communication; what moral meanings attach to cooking; and how eating together both unites and divides.
Assessment
| Item | Date | What |
|---|---|---|
| LB3 | Fri 2026-10-23 | Seminar posting: food, class, who is not in the picture |
| LB4 | Fri 2026-10-30 | Seminar posting, for whoever is present — G12 not penalised |
| LB5 | Tue 2026-11-03 | Posting from the second Heda session |
| CS4 | Fri 2026-11-13 | The Heda paragraph — every adjective earned; direct practice for A3 |
| A3 sits | Tue 2026-11-17 | In-class essay: food, the table and ethics, argued from the pictures |
Full detail is in the full register.