Kochi Biennale
PUNCTUM
Edible Archives with Supriya Menon Meneghetti
CABRAL YARD, FORT KOCHI
27th and 28th February
12 noon to 5 pm
PUNCTUM as the name for this event. Punctum is the element in a photo that grabs the viewer, the one thing that stands out from the rest, perhaps not even with the artist’s intending it, the element that causes an emotional reaction ‘that pricks, bruises’ according to Roland Barthes.
Edible Archives:
All of us retain the experiences of the foods we have eaten, and they become a part of our being — an edible archive we carry around in our bodies, memories and minds. One of the most integral elements of traditional Indian food culture has been vanishing rapidly since the 1960s, as the thousands of varieties of indigenous rice are inexorably being replaced by new hybrid varieties. Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar and Shalini Krishan of the Edible Archives team have been travelling to source indigenous varieties in all their diversity: of taste, texture and colour; of starchiness and nutritive value; of traditional knowledge and techniques; of cultural and religious importance; a diversity, in short, of possible ways of life. By documenting these, and creating a space to work with them, we hope to capture in some ways that what is fleeting, so all is not lost.
Each meal that we cook becomes an entry into the individual edible archives of the people eating it, as they experience the journey of the rice and it’s accompanying ingredients. Thus we transfer/transform our edible archives into a collective sensory catalogue that belongs to all the people involved in growing, sourcing, cooking and eating the meal.
Supriya Menon Meneghetti :
Supriya’s initial training in ceramics was to have a form in mind before creating and later in the UK, was introduced to ‘Letting Go’ – as in let the form happen using intuitive mind. She uses both these extreme ways of working which gets her on an adventurous journey. Her love of painting in colour and also the ash from the wood fire creates different directions in ceramics. Losing her studio to tsunami, she began to study Ikebana which was an incredible opening and disciplining of the mind, while creating with nature and learning the harmony and shapes.
A thought, an idea, a vision starts the process of creating and then while making intuitive energy takes lead. Finally the fire completes the works.
The three mediums interflow to create the forms
Supriya also works as a curator and has coordinated in international ceramic exhibitions.
For Punctum, Supriya has selected bowls from different studios, they reflect the form in different perspectives of colour, shape and feel – with the function of serving. With Edible Archives, the food and ware come together towards furthering the journey.
