Dream lunch

Ho, Wuon-Gean

Abstract

DURING THE FIRST MONTHS of the pandemic the intimate connection of food and our stability was amplified. We stockpiled beans, devoured ice1 cream novelties and became increasingly aware of the instability and inequity of the entire food system. While providing a path to comfort, this solitary consumption led to moments of not just personal anxiety but a consideration of our roles as perpetrators of an unsustainable ecosystem. Food is a product of a larger human network that has harnessed its power for community, ceremony, and sustenance. We will be discussing, not only the historically symbiotic nature of political prints and food justice, but the very acts of printing and their parallels to the act of cooking. Through this panel we will bring to the table artists who are working with personal and cultural representations of food, but also artists planting seeds of a reimagined sustainable landscape. Our panelists will be serving their research in the form of playful tablescapes, personal narratives and radical care for the planet whose cycles sustain us.

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"DREAM LUNCH." In this talk I will look at personal depictions of food and consider how these have changed in recent months of solitude. I will also reflect on how printmaking has some parallels with cooking, in the gathering of ingredients with a goal in mind, and how the viewing of the end-product has parallels with the consumption of sweet treats. My fellowship at The Royal Academy Schools in 2016 started this culinary contemplation. There was a chef whose daily feasts soothed and fattened us up. Being of Chinese heritage, food is an important means of communication, sharing and celebration. My Singaporean and Malaysian family are shown in many works. During this recent enforced solitude, I started to make numerous prints of comfort-eating and drinking alone. “Dream Lunch” describes an imagined menu of grilled mackerel, stuffed with onions and crushed peppercorns and cardamom, with steamed rice, and raspberries and icecream for afters. The print contains an explicit desire to share a specific meal with friends and family.

Citation

Ho, W. (2021, March). Dream lunch. Presented at Remote Contact, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

• Presentation Conference Type: Lecture
• Conference Name: Remote Contact
• Conference Location: University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• Start Date: Mar 12, 2021
• End Date: Mar 13, 2021
• Deposit Date: Mar 29, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 31, 2021
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7239836
• Publisher URL: https://vimeo.com/524871449
• Additional Information: https://vimeo.com/524871449