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When we eat, we often ingest our conversations as our bodies do our meal, digesting simultaneously both flavors and ideas, aromas and speculations, textures and debates. Yogyakarta-born artist Elia Nurvista recognizes this. Her decade-long, community-based practice is lined with photographic documentation of people gathered around vibrant spreads of rice, curries, sautéed vegetables, grilled meats, and fresh fruits presented generously in bowls, on plates, or banana leaves. Other records show people cooking, with woks, teak leaves, and shallow bamboo baskets, in kitchens across Indonesia and elsewhere. In these gastronomic happenings, Nurvista fleshes out the question: what can the materials and processes we use to nourish ourselves say about our histories, our politics, and our societies?
The artist’s exploration in food began unassumingly: she moved into an apartment equipped with a large kitchen and was in 2012 as part of her residency in Koganecho, a former red-light district in Yokohama. She asked migrants in the area: “What food reminds you of home?” and organized a series of lunches where they would share memories of their birth countries over Indonesian dishes. Recipes from across the globe embroidered with red thread onto wrapping cloths, which are used frequently in Japan to wrap lunch boxes, were also shown in an installation as part of the work, recalling the capacity of food to trigger nostalgia and simulate, or even create, safe spaces.
