We Are What You Eat
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We Are What You Eat, 2021 at Heaven Gallery, Chicago. Photo: Eugene Tang.
We Are What You Eat is a group exhibition curated by Fabiola Tosi. The exhibition was presented on February 2nd through March 10th, 2024 at Heaven Gallery, Chicago. The exhibition was developed with the contribution of Assistant Curator Vidushi Lohia. Exhibited artists: Kyle Bellucci Johanson; Gabriel Chalfin-Piney; Gericault De La Rose; Cristian Natoli; Shonna Pryor.
We Are What We You Eat questions the validity of contemporary definitions of authenticity in relation to cultural identities, focusing on food preparation and sharing as an empowering cross-cultural practice of re-appropriation and agency.
A legacy of colonialist practices of categorization of non-western cultures, the definition of authenticity is intertwined with a false perception of cultural identities as fixed frameworks. Culture is dynamic, identity is in flux. The label of authenticity is assigned based on a collective social process which identifies in any one individual—person, community or entity—the barer of agency over certain matters. This process is however influenced by systemic power structures that privilege white-western aesthetics, misplacing agency through appropriation and misrepresentation of colonized cultures.
We Are What We You Eat questions the validity of contemporary definitions of authenticity in relation to cultural identities, focusing on food preparation and sharing as an empowering cross-cultural practice of re-appropriation and agency.
A legacy of colonialist practices of categorization of non-western cultures, the definition of authenticity is intertwined with a false perception of cultural identities as fixed frameworks. Culture is dynamic, identity is in flux. The label of authenticity is assigned based on a collective social process which identifies in any one individual—person, community or entity—the barer of agency over certain matters. This process is however influenced by systemic power structures that privilege white-western aesthetics, misplacing agency through appropriation and misrepresentation of colonized cultures.
Bittersweet, Gericault De La Rose, 2022. Photo: Eugene Tang.
Table, Kyle Bellucci Johanson and Nate Young, 2018. Photo: Eugene Tang.
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Left: Mensa 1, Shonna Pryor, 2023. Right: We looked Outside of ourselves for our peace of mind, Gabriel Chalfin-Piney, 2024. Photo: Eugene Tang.
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In a political and social context where cultural identity and diversity are threatened by narratives of oppression and appropriation, communities are reclaiming their identities by reinforcing the relevance of heritage and traditions as drivers of self-affirmation. Storytelling stands at the core of this process. We Are What You Eat focuses on a familiar space, the table, as the site where narratives of identity and belonging are created and shared. Here, storytelling becomes a tool of awareness to reaffirm a cultural identity that is passed on as heritage from one generation to the next. Building on the commonly used phrase “you are what you eat,” the exhibition title represents a commentary on cultural consumption practices. We, the individuals who can claim ownership over a given cultural identity, are deprived of the agency to assign authenticity over certain practices. Instead You, who are part of a privileged power structure, self-assign authority to determine how to consume cultural products that are not your own. In doing so We—a non-western cultural identity—are consumed by this violent act of colonizing appropriation.
It is when we sit at the table and share meals that we realize how much this simple everyday action represents a common practice, a non-dimensional zone of cultural synergy that we share as humans beyond time and space. Through interactions and storytelling, the dining table becomes a place where individuals are empowered in defining and reclaiming their identity, to reappropriate rooted cultural practices.
It is when we sit at the table and share meals that we realize how much this simple everyday action represents a common practice, a non-dimensional zone of cultural synergy that we share as humans beyond time and space. Through interactions and storytelling, the dining table becomes a place where individuals are empowered in defining and reclaiming their identity, to reappropriate rooted cultural practices.
Front: Things in the material world will never be Home, Gabriel Chalfin-Piney, 2024. Back: Angel (series), Gabriel Chalfin-Piney, 2024. Photo: Eugene Tang.
Underside Yellow, Shonna Pryor, 2024. Photo: Eugene Tang.
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Bittersweet, Gericault De La Rose, 2022. Photo: Eugene Tang.
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We Are What You Eat, gallery view. Photo: Eugene Tang.