Recipe Box is an online platform that collects artists contributions on the topic of displacement and cultural consumption. Artists are invited to reflect on how culture is consumed and how this process can influence discourses of identity in relation to the displaced body. The format of the recipe is reinterpreted by participating artists, to become a collection of reflections on better practices of cultural consumption, challenging norms that are rooted in western-centric practices of interpretation and access to non-western cultures.
The project is inspired by the role of food preparation and sharing as a cross-cultural practice that facilitates conversations on culture and identity. The conceptual preparation of food for physical consumption works as a point of connection to discuss how culture is consumed and how this process can influence discourses of identity in relation to the displaced body
Recipe Box is presented as part of the programming series for the exhibition The Frantic Desire for Almost Real, on view at Chicago Artists Coalition on January 29 through March 11, 2021. The exhibition explores connections between identity, collective memory, and authenticity. The Frantic Desire for Almost Real “arises only as a neurotic reaction to the vacuum of memories” (Umberto Eco, Travels In Hyperreality). The displaced body is central to the constant search for cultural memories as a way to affirm one’s identity, the Real. This process however is complicated by the inconsistent relationship between reality, perception and the concept of authenticity. The Real is a fixed identity that exists as an ideal version of the self. Almost Real is a transitional identity, slipping in and out of liminal spaces or in-between fixed designations, as Homi K. Bhabha describes in their meditation on “the authentic”. In a vacuum of memories, the Almost Real is frantically desired by the displaced body.
The project is inspired by the role of food preparation and sharing as a cross-cultural practice that facilitates conversations on culture and identity. The conceptual preparation of food for physical consumption works as a point of connection to discuss how culture is consumed and how this process can influence discourses of identity in relation to the displaced body
Recipe Box is presented as part of the programming series for the exhibition The Frantic Desire for Almost Real, on view at Chicago Artists Coalition on January 29 through March 11, 2021. The exhibition explores connections between identity, collective memory, and authenticity. The Frantic Desire for Almost Real “arises only as a neurotic reaction to the vacuum of memories” (Umberto Eco, Travels In Hyperreality). The displaced body is central to the constant search for cultural memories as a way to affirm one’s identity, the Real. This process however is complicated by the inconsistent relationship between reality, perception and the concept of authenticity. The Real is a fixed identity that exists as an ideal version of the self. Almost Real is a transitional identity, slipping in and out of liminal spaces or in-between fixed designations, as Homi K. Bhabha describes in their meditation on “the authentic”. In a vacuum of memories, the Almost Real is frantically desired by the displaced body.