Matzo Ball, Challah, and Kugel: Exploring Intercultural Exchange through Food and Farming on Long Island
Gabriella Nachman
Our perception of food differs according to our cultural heritage because nourishment is a vessel for connection. One of the most poignant examples of how food can overcome geopolitical adversity is the story of an Israeli and an Arabic man who formed a relationship as a direct result of their common love for Middle Eastern cuisine. Although these two men were taught to hate one another throughout their lives, their connection to food as ritual created a space for them to form a bond of friendship. In my research, I write about historic and contemporary research on the evolution of food, looking at the impact of industrial agriculture and globalization on the connection to cuisine and the affected communities. In my capstone project, I explore how design can foster new relationships by connecting food access, practices and rituals across different cultures and backgrounds. This project is centered in my home community in Long Island, New York.
Melting Pot
The goal was to infer connections between food and people through how food connects with one another. I started the process by gathering foods from different cultures, used in traditional ways. Beginning with my own Jewish heritage, I gathered apples and honey which is a traditional food for the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. The color, movement and shapes that emerged created a sense of connection and beauty. I then created a few more combinations which included water, flour and egg to represent challah, and water and oil to represent Shabbat candles. As humans, we are always looking for community and connection. We often feel close to others that share the same interests and values as ourselves, but sometimes we can connect to people in unlikely ways. Food attracts people to each other and catalyzes connection. My installation of Melting Pot is about the movements of food and the connection which attracts and repulses people with blurry and sharp shapes to draw others in. Spatial and geographic movements represent the connections to people from all over the world, relative to where they are now.