KITCHEN MATRIARCH

A photo series, about by grandmother and food. In her recipes I found the female history of my family being passed down from one generation to the next. An oral history filled with personal truths and old wisdom. A knowledge that was there before the science of nutrition was popularised.

I wanted, through my grandmother and food to draw out the sights, smells and tastes of memory. To remember how it felt to wake up in the morning and hear the sounds of the kitchen and smell the aroma of breakfast. It’s the memory of being cared for.

Cooking with my grandmother was a very visual experience. In her world there are no measures, everything was in relation to her hands. Ingredients and their potency were measured by sight and smell. I wanted to find a way of archiving her recipes and her life in food as a visual narrative.

This project was a way of going back to her, and being able to capture that slice of my memory. And then to recreate it, and experience it. While it is a personal history, and a history of my connection to my Grandmother, it is also a larger story that talks about female history and very different kind of knowledge.

Kitchen Matriarch            
Photography Series
Images from the series were shown in New York for ‘LEFT’ –
the annual show by SAWCC (South Asian Women’s Creative Collective). New York