Conversation Proposals is a series by Christopher Reynolds that expands on the visual language developed in a concurrent project, Conversation Maps. While Conversation Maps recorded and transcribed real dialogues exchanged around a meal, Conversation Proposals imagines hypothetical interactions, proposing new conversations that might emerge around shared images of food.

In this body of work, Reynolds utilizes the same system of line work to diagram emotional and conversational responses—such as laughter, interruptions, questions, and excitement—but this time these visual "maps" do not document actual events. Instead, they speculate on possible interactions generated by carefully selected imagery sourced from vintage cookbooks. Each composition features a nucleus formed not by a live meal but by curated visual relics of mid-20th century food culture: elaborately styled buffets, platters, and stylized culinary displays.

By repurposing these nostalgic images as catalysts for imagined conversations, Reynolds reflects on how visual representations of food—rather than food itself—shape collective memory, aspiration, and social dynamics. The project underscores the ways in which food imagery influences expectations, behaviors, and emotional responses, even in the absence of physical consumption or direct social engagement.

Conversation Proposals prompts viewers to consider: How do we project meaning onto curated representations of meals? What kinds of imagined communities or tensions arise when food becomes purely symbolic? In shifting from lived experience to constructed fantasy, Reynolds invites audiences to explore the layered intersections between food, communication, memory, and desire.