Mouthlevel

For this talk, the artist will be making whipped cream as they engage in a discussion with attendees about their practice and critical examinations of whiteness and white supremacy. Following the discussion, Russell will stage a performance in response to several recent instances of white artists using the trauma of people of colour as subjects in their work, without being held responsible to these subjects or their histories, and, inevitably, conjuring more trauma for the depicted communities. Russell will read from a manifesto compiled of quotes from these artists as they respond to accusations of racism and cultural appropriation. Each time they recite the words I, Me, or Mine, Russell will be pied in the face with a plate of whipped cream.

PART 2 OF 2 Annie will use this platform to create a sense of Chinatown in Halifax, since it does not exist in a geographically-located sense. Participants will join the artist in imagining and building a Halifax Chinatown experience (and map) by moving through the city, sampling one food item/dish from each location, while mapping their travels and reflections on a shared tablecloth. This will look a lot like a food tour, thematically based on Chinese cuisine, where participants will travel together to sample some of the city’s Chinese food establishments and/or offerings.

Annie will use this platform to create a sense of Chinatown in Halifax, since it does not exist in a geographically-located sense. Participants will join the artist in imagining and building a Halifax Chinatown experience (and map) by moving through the city, sampling one food item/dish from each location, while mapping their travels and reflections on a shared tablecloth. This will look a lot like a food tour, thematically based on Chinese cuisine, where participants will travel together to sample some of the city’s Chinese food establishments and/or offerings.

For this talk, the artist will be serving Miyeokgook, a traditional Korean soup typically cooked for loved ones, it represents the gift of comfort and health and is often served to new mothers, when one is sick, or as a birthday meal. This intimate talk will take place in a domestic setting, harnessing the sense of communal cooking the artist experienced as a child. Lee will be speaking about her past work ‘Birthday Soup for My Father’, in which she prepared this soup to cope with witnessing her father’s illness—as an act and labour of love and compassion through a performance of care. The artist will also be serving tangerines as dessert and asking us to reflect and meditate on our anxieties and fears through the practice of mindfulness around consuming food. At the end of the meal, she would like us to honour this experience of caring, preparing and cooking the ingredients for those who have taught us countless things in the kitchen, and thus life.

For this talk, the two artists will be discussing themes around culture, tradition and home through ritual. Participants are encouraged to bring in their comfort foods, as a potluck where audience members can share food traditions that are tied to family, community and ancestry. Cinthia will be making patacones (Latin American plantain dish), while talking about how the cooking of them is a ritual that can bring comfort, familiarity and the feeling of home. She wants to share the making of them as a way to share her family history, while talking about her art practice. rudi will be making lakalet, a traditional indigenous fry bread. rudi is interested in how the ritual of making food can bring people together and how it translates to sharing and comfort, stemming from tradition through their family, their community and their ancestors.