Attempting to Capture Taste is an ongoing body of work by Christopher Reynolds that investigates the mechanics, meaning, and metaphor of taste. Drawing inspiration from Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s seminal 1825 gastronomic treatise The Physiology of Taste, Reynolds reexamines the act of tasting as both a physiological phenomenon and a culturally constructed practice.

Brillat-Savarin meticulously outlines various invented movements of the tongue—Spication, Rotation, and Verrition—with each described in a detailed, almost choreographic manner intended to guide practitioners in the art of properly "capturing" taste. Resembling dance instructions, these deconstructed gestures serve as a conceptual foundation for Reynolds’s inquiry into how taste operates at the intersection of biology, ritual, and language.

In his performances and subsequent paintings, Reynolds employs pure squid ink as both material and metaphor. Over three-minute intervals, he records the distinct tongue movements prescribed by Brillat-Savarin onto paper, using the squid ink as a tactile, sensorial medium. Due to the umami-rich properties of the squid ink and the large quantity utilized during the performance, an involuntary and uncontrollable amount of saliva is produced by the artist. As a result, the final material list for these works includes not only squid ink but also the performer's saliva, further embedding the artist’s body directly into the surface of the work.

The resulting performance artifact paintings evoke references to Japanese sumi ink traditions as well as minimalism and abstraction, each mark carrying the weight of gesture, temporality, and intentional imperfection. These visual languages reinforce Reynolds’s exploration of taste as a fleeting yet materially inscribed experience.

In the most recent rendition of the performance, Reynolds collaborates with mezzo soprano Solmaaz Adeli in Attempting to Capture Taste: Spication, Rotation, Verrition (Choice of Sciences). While Reynolds completes Brillat-Savarin’s movements, Adeli brings to life the lyrics of a song written by the famed gastronome titled “The Choice of Sciences” alongside select passages from The Physiology of Taste and several of Brillat-Savarin’s famous aphorisms (“You are what you eat”). Set to melodies popular at the time of the book’s publication, Adeli’s voice celebrates the act of tasting and what Brillat-Savarin considered the superior science: gastronomy.

By elevating Brillat-Savarin’s historical observations into a contemporary framework, Reynolds and Adeli frame taste not as a passive biological function but as a dynamic, culturally mediated act—one shaped by ritual, desire, language, and bodily memory. Ultimately, Attempting to Capture Taste invites viewers to consider how knowledge, perception, and sensation are inextricably linked through both corporeal and cultural processes.