In the Warmth of the Kitchen
IN THE WARMTH OF THE KITCHEN
OFFICIAL OPENING: Friday 18 August, 6 pm
EXHIBITION SHOWING: Friday 18 August – Saturday 21 October, 2023
AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE: Saturday 9 September, 11am – 1pm
BOOKINGS: Please click here to book for Around the Kitchen Table
Exhibition Statement:
The collaborative work In the Warmth of the Kitchen was shown for the first time in Colombia in an exhibition called “Amor” (Love in English), 2017. Carlos and Yamile recreated a traditional Pereira´s kitchen to serve food inspired by the local ingredients available around .
This time, at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Yamile and Carlos are showing a group of mixed media works where they explore their memories related to their own country, but keeping in mind that they are now living in a different land. Consequently, the work is autobiographical in that it refers to specific stories about the territory where they grew up and the personal experiences they have accumulated throughout their lives, while symbolizing the collective nostalgia for that place to which they belong, still called home; but is not so easy to return to.
In general, the work takes you to visit an important place linked to the hearts of Carlos and Yamile. They have made artistic decisions to resignify the work in terms of their life journey, use specific objects to allude to a region where they were born, and offer love in the form of food to the audience to share their culture and identity. This is an invitation to meet around the kitchen, to reflect on the flavours that comfort you, it is at the same time an excuse to reimagine the spaces we once inhabited and to embrace with deep affection the memories we have.
Images: In the Warmth of the Kitchen, Installation view, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, 2023
Around the Kitchen Table
Meet the artists Yamile Tafur Rios and Carlos Sanchez Zapata around the kitchen table as they recreate the warmth of the kitchen and serve Amasijos, a traditional preparation made by hand mainly with wheat, corn, cassava or other common ingredients found according to the region. In this case Carlos and Yamile will make Sweet Plantain Amasijos inspired in the hills of the Colombian Andes where the artists were born and raised. The artists offer love in the shape of food to the audience, to pass the feeling they have for each other, and to generate emotions and connections with the spectators. It is at the same time an excuse to reimagine the spaces that we inhabit, an invitation to make encounters around cooking, to reflect on the flavours that give us comfort and to embrace the memories that you have with deep affection.
View the exhibition catalogue here
About the artists
Yamile Tafur Rios is an artist and educator from Colombia based in Ngunnawal & Ngambri Country, Canberra, Australia. Yamile’s field of interest and research focus on the process of manual labour, everyday occupations and ways to belong. Drawing, painting and making community projects are part of her practice. But she also likes to experiment with different mediums such as textiles, weaving or collaging in her work depending on the project that she’s working on. She has been granted support from Arts ACT 2022-2023 to develop her arts practice combined with community projects. During 2022 she was part of the Creative Recovery and Resilience Program at Ainslie + Gorman Arts Centres and Cahoots Program run by You Are Here Canberra Organisation. She has exhibited solo and group exhibitions between 2013 and 2019, and has received funding for her projects from the Colombian Ministry of Culture among others. She completed her bachelor degree in Visual Arts in Colombia in 2012 before moving to Australia.
Carlos Mario Sanchez Zapata says “Ideas come to me suddenly in different directions, dimension, colour, texture or flavour and as soon as they touch me I feel the conjugation with the universe, the ideas seem to disappear, nonetheless I’m part of them and they are part of me. My essence explodes with the needs to create and retransmit the original thought through an artist development process. My imagination is the fundamental principle of my reality”.