Lunch/Performance | The Art of the Tuna Fish Sandwich: Performing Alison Knowles’s The Identical Lunch

Join Prof. André Lepecki and Prof. Jeannine Tang (Department of Performance Studies, NYU Tisch) for a lunchtime conversation catalyzed by Alison Knowles’s performance The Identical Lunch, based on the artist’s habitual order at NYC diner Riss Foods: “a tuna fish sandwich on wheat toast with butter and lettuce, no mayo, and a cup of soup or glass of buttermilk.” From 1969 until the artist’s death in 2025, numerous artists, friends, and strangers ate variations of this lunch with Knowles across the United States and internationally, writing about their experiences as performers and documentarians of this iconic work. Honoring this legacy, discussion will situate the performance within Knowles’s art of everyday life, ritual, and relation. It will also consider the implications of posthumously activating this communal performance, including changing food cultures such as the recent viral spread of the humble tuna fish sandwich. Attendees will dine on Knowles’s signature meal, and vegan alternatives will be available. 

Visitor Access & Registration

Please register to attend this event.  For attendance without an active NYU ID card, RSVP by Wednesday, November 11 to guarantee building access.

View by Alison Knowles before or after the lunch—the exhibition will be open from 11am to 6pm on November 12.

NYU’s Grey Art Museum provides reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. Requests for accommodations should be submitted at least two weeks in advance. Please email greyartmuseum@nyu.edu or call (212) 998-6780 for assistance.