Chloe Wheldon Hughes

For Us, To Share - written in different languages, on images of cities and natural landscapes.

For Us, To Share - explores ideas of home via food, spice, and the in-between space of translation.

The movement of people from place to place is an experience that we are all connected to; whether through our journeys, through others' prevention of movement, or from afar. Migration has been commonplace throughout human history and has led individuals to consider and re-examine their identities - as we have done as a group of international curators who are currently situated in the same city. A collaboration developed to explore experiences of migration through a dynamic, creative process drawing upon food, recipes, spices and stories.

Over four workshops, students from the Bosco Centre engaged with Southwark's historical archives, painting with spices, and translated their recipes from home through multiple forms of media to produce a visual recipe book. The group, which calls Southwark' home', includes refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and local residents. Home, in this case, Southwark, holds different iterations, for students who have travelled from different parts of the world. A recipe book emerged from the workshops, using food as the medium, and a platform to foster relationships and further understanding of one another—a source of shared knowledge beyond language. Situated and responding to contemporary global affairs, For Us, To Share sought to celebrate the many similarities and differences in culture, memory and language. Ultimately, the group's lived experience is a microcosm of what is happening on a global scale.

The group worked with artist Saima Rasheed, whose practice uses historical techniques in a modern way. In her paintings, she looks at themes of belonging, being a migrant woman of colour. Secondly, working with mother tongues, a collective that hosts translation parties that explore themes of language and identity. Guided by the artists, the group worked with materials such as spices and herbs to bring a sense of 'home' to life, via food and painting. By connecting with the local archives from John Harvard Library, they recognised that a feeling of belonging could emerge from anywhere. The memory of foods or favourite meals became the translation. Through transcending language barriers, everybody could communicate through their recipes and visuals. Reclaiming the stickiness of communication through acts of painting, collaging, eating and drawing.

For Us, To Share is constant; the book produced is a part of the project that can continue to develop with contributions. The pdf links to the recipes and cooking songs are another aspect of virtual continuation. Food is a tangible history passed through hands and oceans; The book became a message about our relationship with places and people. We encourage you to add your recipes and continue to share through the book or digital platform: https://linktr.ee/forustoshare enabling your food to travel beyond your home.

From Us, For You, To Share

Self-Portrait in reflection, holding a camera, taking a 35mm black and white photograph.

Chloe Wheldon Hughes is a curator, artist and researcher exploring the field of inclusive practice. Chloe's curatorial approach combines neurodiverse characteristics to inform how conversations are created to inform potential institutional-model change. Whilst primarily researching this, she has implemented conversations as a construct in practice, by focusing on ideas of narrative and dialogues through representation and inclusion; within the relationships between artists, institutions, curators and publics. Therefore, asking questions like What might spaces with diverse representation look like, where knowledge and experience can be shared and created? How might this impact society if we used it as a foundational starting point for a new model of institutional engagement? Finally concluding that what makes a curator is not a singular role but a combination of balancing multiple roles in a co-working environment.

Within her dissertation she responds to the question: How should the curatorial be shifting practice, compared to how independent practitioners and artists are thinking and practising, through neurodiversity? She actively considers the importance of speaking to and from a position of diversity by exploring the underrepresentation of neurodiversity in practice, literature, and curatorial design and related decisions. She has researched what can be learned from other practices, particularly artist practices, through having conversations to facilitate opinions on their relationship with institutions and the curatorial, whilst exploring the fantasy approaches that many neurodiverse artists use.

For her graduate project, Chloe and the Southwark Park Gallery group explored how we communicate across dialogues stepping away from the traditional art world language and focusing on engaging through translation, using art and food as the tools—creating a balance between authorship that transitions a theoretical idea into a practical outcome. This is a crucial aspect that made this project a contemporary curatorial project; collaborating and dividing in concepts of public, what a public is, when does a public become a partner or collaborator, and the level of control maintained in that public's narrative (authorship), their stories? These questions are a learning curve for curators, performing many roles and, most importantly, managing expectations for all. A good curator has the potential to shape encounters with art and culture. Curators are the facilitators. Real value is derived from diversity in curation since, without diversity, the art world cannot truly represent all.

Recipe Book

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Video

For Us, To Share Runner – Painted with spices onto a canvas table runner by Artist Saima Rasheed and the students from the Bosco Centre in Workshops 1, 2 and 4.

For Us, To Share – Workshop 2

For Us, To Share – Workshop 3 - Translation Party

For Us, To Share – Workshop 4 - Section of Completed Runner

For Us, To Share – Outcome Day - 7th May. Display in Bothy

For Us, To Share – Outcome Day - 7th May. Book Table Display

For Us, To Share – Outcome Day - 7th May. Recipes are being written and exchanged through books.

In Collaboration with:

Saima Rasheed Artist

Saima Rasheed, whose practice uses historical techniques in a modern way. In her paintings, she looks at themes of belonging, being a migrant woman of colour.

mother tongues

mother tongues, a collective that hosts translation parties that explore themes of language and identity.

Medium:

Photography

Chloe Wheldon Hughes

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In Collaboration with:

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Social

About

Royal College of Art