Wheat to the Chaff

Wheat to the Chaff is a performance and an in-situ installation using dough.

Chaff is the husk, the outer covering of the grain that’s inedible and has to be separated from the useful part (the kernel) before milling. When people say “separate the wheat from the chaff,” they mean sorting out what’s valuable from what’s worthless like truth from lies, wisdom from noise, or nourishment from waste. The title Wheat to the Chaff, relates directly to the land and its uses for metals, as well as the written / re-written / un-written history and impacts on the region. The work is based on personal memory and connection to the regional metal production.

During a residency at Muijala Art Place residency I was able to use somatic method to access stories that are stored within my body through the simple action of making and manipulating dumpling dough. The similarity in both climate and landscape of the area of Ural Mountains where I was born provided an immersive experience which facilitated personal memories to come to the forefront and to eventually use as material for this work.

I spent time doing a daily meditation whilst manipulating dough as a somatic method to access knowledge stored within my body consisting of memories, drawings, movements, gestures, and singing. The outcome is an in-situ installation and a 30 minute performance based on the collected material.

Wheat to the Chaff was presented at Muijala Art Place in Reila, Finland, at BRUTUS and at Buitenplaats Brienenoord in Rotterdam, NL.
Project supported by CBK Rotterdam.

Shedding

Shedding is an ongoing research project that began at Entorns art residency. I have been looking into the connection between the food, the body, and the land. What memories does my body hold? How can a cooking gesture or taste be used to access these memories and knowledge?

Exploring cooking gestures as a way to recover memories and knowledge stored within my body. To help my work, I am closely looking into ‘Eating in Theory’ by Anne Marie Mol, and body-space perception thought of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and the idea of knowledge continuously passed on through female story-tellers as described in ‘Grandma’s Story’ by Trinh T. Minh-Ha. I have been making bioplastic to resemble my skin, using cooking gestures as a way to recover memories, shedding layers of myself while shedding new light on the knowledge stored within my body. Or our collective bodies.

The final development of this work is still in progress, it will eventually become a video installation.
Project supported by Can Serrat x Entorns Grant.