National Chocolate Day: a unique artwork by Janine Antoni (born 1964 US/Bahamas)

Being half Swiss I’m delighted that there’s such a thing as National Chocolate Day. It was initiated by the National Confectioners Association. Performance, installation and Conceptual artist Janine Antoni in this installation had a unique take on chocolate.

October 28 is National Chocolate Day: a unique artwork by Janine Antoni (born 1964 US/Bahamas)

Janine Antoni, Gnaw, 1992, chocolate cube gnawed by artist, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, © 2026 Janine Antoni (MOMA-S1242)

Antoni's Gnaw installation and performance brought her work international attention. Chewing through a 300 kilogram (661 lb) cube of chocolate mixed with butter, she spat out what she had chewed and created objects relating to societal ideals of feminine beauty -- lipstick for the ideal of feminine fashion, and gorging on chocolate to the point of vomiting to bring up the issue of women suffering from bulimia, one of the extreme measures taken to lose weight and fit the idea of "beauty" in the West.

Gnaw offers a pointed lesson in dispelling social guidelines -- based largely on consumerism -- that victimize women. Ironically, Antoni herself must indulge in those very behaviors to create the finished objects -- lipsticks and heart-shaped chocolates -- for the installation in jewelry showcases. Although most of the gnawing on this big block of chocolate took part away from viewers, the result is a woman's critique of fashion, art, and consumption, both materially and physically.

Background  

One of the first organized efforts to champion women's art was the Women's Art Program at California State University in Fresno. Founded in 1971, the program intended to fight inequities in the established art world from an institutional position. It basically encouraged women to restructure the way they approached careers as artists, and give unabashed expression to themselves as women.

Conceptual and Performance Art had, in the 1960s, always been in the vanguard of promoting socio-political awareness. Many women artists were involved in these movements because of that. They had learned that even speaking out about women's issues could make their art "political". In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many of these artists began to demonstrate their viewpoint through art work that described women's lifestyles and experiences through a variety of personally revealing and interactive pieces.

Born in Freeport, Bahamas, Janine Antoni received her education at Sarah Lawrence College in New York and RISD, Providence. While technically a sculptor, Antoni's work blurs the lines between sculpture and performance, where the actions of the performance produce the finished sculpture/installation.

While her work initially was meant to emphasize process in creating the pieces, Antoni realized that performance was an integral part for viewers to understand her motives. Her performances address issues that affect women, especially those forced on women by societal "norms."