The Kitschen

2020

Dimensions variable

sculpture and audio/visual installation composed of dining table, chairs, paint, embroidered and sewed cotton, and mixed thrifted plates/cups/silverware

During the COVID era before the vaccine was available, the sense of community established through the preparation and sharing of a meal with loved ones was missing. Our mutual isolation caused a sorrowful loss of connection between one another. In this piece, I set out to represent the pre-COVID era joy of gathering around food, coupled with the somber reality of what was our current social state by creating a sensory experience through film and sound. The act of preparing a meal is inherently kinesthetic and the sounds of cooking and communicating with others stimulate one auditorily. Ingredients emit an aroma and the ability to occupy the same space as your loved ones creates a feeling of togetherness. I’ve created a faux-family dinner by depicting myself cooking my own comfort food: gravy and meatballs and then proceeding to eat the meal around an empty table. Throughout, audio recordings taken from home videos of my own family cooking and eating are mixed into the sounds of my cooking and the silence of me eating in solitude to represent this space of absence and loss.