Fires and feasts for final event of artist’s Huntly residency
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FOLK joined together to mark the end of a year-long residency in Huntly with a "performative meal".
30 participants gathered at Greenmyres Eco Bothy outside Huntly on July 3, for the final Act of Kawther Luay’s 12 month residency with Deveron Projects.
Seated at a custom-built table, guests were invited to prepare a locally sourced and foraged meal with Kawther and collaborator Fionn Duffy.
Combining their practices of cooking and making ceramics, the performative meal involved stuffing trout with yarrow, sorrel and lovage before it was wrapped in wild clay and baked in a specially created brick oven – inspired by indigenous traditions of earth oven cooking.
Across three related events, or Acts, of The Gathering Table, Kawther and Fionn have explored wild materials and their relationship to Huntly and the surrounding area while questioning when a meal begins and ends.
Following the meal, clay was placed back in the river, the remains of food and fish back in the fire and guests took away sourdough starter to illustrate the ongoing and transformative nature of the artists' research.
Marking the residency's close, Ms Luay said: “My year-long residency at Deveron Projects has allowed me the freedom to look at new ways we could make a meal an artistic experience whilst exploring the politics of food and hospitality.
"My work always responds to the place I am in and the people in that place so for The Gathering Table I wanted to develop a creative meal that is connected to the local area.
"Historically we had a much more holistic and sustainable approach to sourcing our food so I was keen to create the conditions that would invite us to change the way we think about, eat or share food, that use simple local ingredients from small scale farms.
"Everything was sourced within a 50 mile radius with most ingredients including flour and dairy from just down the road from where we are.
"I also looked at how we make hosting a more collective experience, creating a more convivial atmosphere that is in contrast to typical contemporary art spaces and challenging the roles of guests and host in playful ways.
"Each meal is like an Act in a play, working as a stand alone moment but interlinked to a wider narrative as the guests at each meal help to prepare food for the next one.
"Collaborating with artist Fionn Duffy has been hugely enriching as together we have uncovered fascinating local histories and folklore connected to the land and its ingredients and these narratives have woven themselves into the fabric of the meals.
"Fionn’s deep research based approach to making art felt like a natural collaboration and we’re so excited to activate Fionn’s beautiful ceramic vessels made with foraged local clay.”
Natalia Palombo, director at Deveron Projects, said: “Over the time of Kawther’s residency, we have learned so much about the politics of hospitality and hosting as an arts organisation working with artists-in-residence on a regular basis.
"As an organisation with an artistic programme, it's an opportunity to think around the dynamics and politics of sharing art through eating together and the relationship between art and food.
"Kawther’s interventions over the past year (including turning our AGM into an Annual General Meal!) have been playful, illuminating and open to creating new dynamics between us as audiences as an outward facing organisation rooted in the local community.
"I look forward to seeing the transformative effects of The Gathering Table over the coming months and the impact of these events as we look to more sustainable ways of eating and living and alternative ways to sharing contemporary art.”
