In this online workshop with artist Inês Neto dos Santos, we will consider how recipes are constructed while exploring the written, spoken, gestural and visual language surrounding food. 

A session delving into the metaphorical values of food and it’s surrounding processes, elements, stories and contexts. If food is a language, how and where do we speak it? What are the gestures involved in cooking, feeding, eating; growing, harvesting, sharing? How can textures, colours, flavours and smells communicate ideas, feelings or visual impressions (and vice-versa)? In this workshop, devised across two afternoons, we will look critically at the construction of recipes and touch upon performance and narrative, and discuss how using stylistic devices can help tell a story and create a framework, whether linear or nonlinear.  

For this workshop, participants are invited to bring a recipe they have a connection with and share it in the first Zoom session on Monday 16 November. It doesn’t matter if it’s a recipe you make regularly, or have never made before (perhaps someone else has cooked it for you), as long as you are familiar with it in one way or another.  

There will also be an opportunity to participate in two offline tasks which will involve interpreting recipes visually through writing, sound or gestures, or a combination. We will then develop these into final works which will be documented in a group publication. 

This workshop is part of Ways of Eating, a series of workshops combining the study of kitchen skills with critical and historical accounts of cooking and eating cultures. Participants will encounter the practical and theoretical simultaneously, delving into a universal activity often taken for granted. Each session will address a different theme and how it impacts our food culture.

Schedule

Monday 16 November
2-3.30pm: Introduction and sharing of texts
3.30-4.30pm: Offline task
4.30 5.30pm: Discuss task  

Monday 23 November
2-5.30pm: Share work  

These sessions will be taking place online via Zoom. You must book your place via Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link and password. If you do not receive this please get in touch via info@openschooleast.org well before the event starts. When joining, please ensure that your mic is muted unless you are speaking. These sessions may be recorded for archival and promotional purposes, so please switch off your video feed if you do not wish to be included in this. Please join early to avoid delays (there may be a queue, the host will let you in to the session).

About the artist

Inês Neto dos Santos (Lisbon, 1992) is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her practice stands between performance and installation, using food, people and spaces as metaphors  and prompts for discussion and conversation. She creates contexts and frameworks through which to explore sustainability, narrative, collaboration and togetherness. Alongside her art practice, Inês teaches, writes and cooks – to inform her work in a variety of ways. Her work has been exhibited across London, Lisbon, Madrid, Kuwait, Athens and Porto. She holds an MA in Visual Communication from the Royal College of Art (2016) and a BA in Graphic and Media Design and Illustration from London College of Communication (2013).