Soba’s Corner (en processus depuis 2020) est une installation vidéo basée sur des recettes sinocanadiennes de différentes provinces. Diffusées sur YouTube, les vidéos de l’artiste Snack Witch Joni Cheung empruntent la forme d’émissions de cuisine où s’insinue une narration parallèle à travers les sous-titres et la « recette » accessible par un lien dans la boîte de description YouTube.
Food, like art, is not neutral. Looking at cuisines as windows through which to study perceptions of tradition and authenticity, Snack Witch Joni Cheung draws viewers in with humour and the familiar, to confront the uncomfortable histories embedded in the everyday.
Soba’s Corner in this vitrine installation is presented alongside a neon sign, maneki-nekos, and lucky plants from Cheung’s recent works, Adult Sweetness (2023) and Lucky Charms (2023 - ongoing). These objects pay homage to the objects they hold dear in the restaurant spaces she considers their second home.
In addition, TOPO has collaborated with the Snack Witch to create a restaurant website for Soba’s CornerThis scrolling space further expands the playful and layered virtual space she began creating during the COVID pandemic: bridging the imagined and the material.
Participatory performance - DTD: Down to Dumpling ?
Invite to peanut butter dumpling making
On Friday, September 6, 2024, in TOPO's Vitrine and in front of the audience of the Rentrée de Gaspé, a collective launch of several artist-run centers, Joni Cheung invites the public to prepare DTD: Down to Dumpling?, typical chinese steamed appetizers made of dough and filling.
The workshop will take the form of her ongoing series, DTD: Down to Dumpling? a call and response project sustained through exchanging hand folded, edible goodies. It started during the global pandemic as a desire for Cheung to enact their family’s Sunday morning ritual of going to 飲茶 yum cha and ordering mountains of 點心 dim sum.
Inspired by a memory of her folding 燒賣 siu mai and 雲吞 wonton with their dad, this lonely activity became a way for them to reach out to and care for loved ones and strangers from afar. Isolation provided room to percolate on thoughts around home(making), diasporic experiences, and familial relations in material+intangible realms. Continuing on through this collective time, the artist hopes to nurture acts of sharing space, stories, energy, and food—together.
Credits
Snack Witch tient à remercier les très nombreuses personnes qui l’ont aidé à réaliser l’univers de Soba’s Corner jusqu’à présent, notamment : Brandon A. Dalmer, Rebecca Ladida, Amelia Wong-Mersereau, Philippe Dumaine, Arezu Salamzadeh, Lan « Florence » Yee, Charlie Carroll-Beauchamp, Sami Zenderoudi, Siam Obregón, Gabor Bata, Sabine de KataSoho, et toutes les personnes à venir ! GRAND merci à Roxane Michel, Maxime-Alexandre Gosselin et Michel Lefebvre pour leur soutien dans la création de cette itération de Soba’s Corner.
