Esther Adler: I always think these hamburgers look kind of like mouths, and like they’re talking. If they talked, what do you think they would say?
Lilly: “I will be eaten first, because I am more delicious than you.”
Esther Adler: My name is Esther Adler, and I'm a curator in Drawings and Prints.
Lilly: My name is Lilly, and this is . . .
Esther Adler: Two Cheeseburgers, with Everything (Dual Hamburgers) by the artist Claes Oldenburg. You want to break down what exactly we see?
Lilly: Okay, so I see a bun, either ketchup or tomatoes, and then mayo, cheese, the burger, and lettuce, and then some mustard or something. And then the bun.
Esther Adler: So, on the one hand, you can tell this is a hamburger. But on the other hand, there's weird stuff happening—like the lettuce is kind of drippy in a bunch of different colors, and the bun is a little gooey-looking in a way an actual burger wouldn’t be. But when you eat a hamburger, what happens?
Lilly: It gets all messed up and drippy.
Esther Adler: Yeah. So maybe it’s a little more accurate, because it's messy just the way food gets when you actually eat it.
Here’s a good question for you. Is food art?
Lilly: Yes.
Esther Adler: Why do you say that?
Lilly: Because I am, unlicensed, but I am a food stylist, which basically means I play with my food until it looks good.
Esther Adler: Here’s a quote that the artist once said. “Food is like clay. You can sculpt with it.” What happens, though, when you play with your food like clay?
Lilly: You tell me to stop. Because apparently, “It’s gross!”
Esther Adler: It is gross.
Lilly: It’s not gross. It’s art.
Esther Adler: Wow. Thanks, Oldenburg. Real parenting advice there.