at the Preston Gallery in Cambridge, Canada. eat other Presented as a series of reflections on food and identity as a gateway to the racialization of the body. In her curatorial essay, Noor Bhangu talks about the cannibalism of racism that forms as a form of domination and extraction to help suppress white supremacists. Here, four of her visual her artists—Molly JF Caldwell, Raja Shri Goody, Gabriel Pare, and Alizezor Lutuna—came together to initiate a dialogue about belonging, subjectivity, and racial violence. This axis will be the axis of the diaspora population of the Western countries.
Through an essay-like framework formed through the exhibition of his work, Bagu refers to Bell Hook’s work, which speaks from personal experience of overhearing a white male college student talking about women and their bodies through a racial lens. doing. , serves as a way to cannibalize differences. In her conversation with STIR, the curator talks about “cannibalistic urges” and, through this particular example from Hook, “the desire to digest or eat difference through intercourse.” Eating, nutrition, and digestion become rich metaphors, drawing upon and formulating political discourses to resist the process of ‘othering’ by claiming such spaces. In the curator’s words, food becomes a metaphor for the flesh of others, and the dominant race approaches understanding others through imported spices and flavors.
The rejection of the institutionalized space of art galleries as white cubes has become so widely publicized that the curation of exhibition spaces has forced the differentiated politics of acceptable art forms within such spaces. It reflects. The works presented differ from studio practice, which inhabits the formalist and scholarly conceptions of institutionalized forms, fermenting, resisting literary pamphlets, deconstructed books, set up to invite new alliances. Includes carpeted seating. Regarding the whitewashed nature of the white cube, Bhangu told his STIR: I wanted to give a different frame to the work on display. I chose turmeric, green and blue to play with authenticity and ideas about culture versus nature. , is kind of romantic as a symbol of lost origins.Green, along with blue, speaks of what we consider to be nature. ”
Alize Zorlutuna presents a constellation of artworks that interact with each other, with examples of food processing, stirring, distilling and preserving. Bhangu refers to the latter as being an important part of his artist practice, which involves collecting materials, including those provided by friends and family. One photo documents her making a tomato puree, and the video references a home area in the kitchen where her mother is documented making dolma, a cultural idiosyncrasy. Waiting, longing, and time intertwine to foster solidarity through cultural nuances. Nutrition, sharing history, preserving culture, and ethical consumption steer the conversation toward community building. on the other hand, leave the tableAn installation of ornate Turkish carpets and personal items, another group of works within the comprehensive display of Zolltuna’s work is a shelf with jars of preserving oils and other materials. Time will be a constant player.
Gabriel Paré presents a series of kirigami compositions titled Dig around routes i-iii It takes place as a “mining” of lost history and labor, commenting on diaspora conditions. The drilling referenced can be seen through the semi-functional action of the layered paper being cut, with an eye to Atswete, a Filipino plant with medicinal properties, its historical uses, and endemic . A set of wrappers for the Filipino spice brand Mama Sita is an additional element, and the materials collected include information on imports and the route the spice itself travels around the world, making it a stand-in for the diaspora. It is Here, in his conversation with STIR, Bhangu points to a new kind of world-building that the diasporic imagination creates through its own positionality.
Additionally, Molly JF Caldwell’s veil An art installation of a pearl necklace re-sewn by an artist, with layers of white foodstuffs from the Asian community such as rice, tofu, and MSG, on top of which a veil is placed. The encrypted nature of food and its racialization was enacted by the racist backlash against Asians during Covid. The stitches that reproduce the necklace unite the realities of the racialized past and present diaspora.
Departing from diaspora identity and politics, Bagh also brings Rajashri Guddi’s work containing the digestion of political fervor stemming from Dalit history and radical literature within the community. Based and historically oppressive caste communities continue to perpetuate violence against Dalit communities based on social indoctrination. write a recipeFinding its roots in this history, it has been staged in many iterations and locations around the world and remains a relevant and emotional project.It exudes resistance that can be addressed by historicizing maintenance and survival. Often accompanied by fun family photos from her own family album, Goody’s images are deliberately left out, and the curator suggests that before picking up the book, a visible physical We are talking about racialization. Cultural cannibalism is also mentioned here, with a preference for sensory over other consumption.
