Soba's Corner - Snack Witch Joni Cheung

This website is part of the art project Soba's Corner : A Chinese-Canadian Cooking Show by artist Snack Witch Joni Cheung. It was produced as part of the project's exhibition in the Vitrine of TOPO - Centre de création numérique, a Montreal art center.

Approach

Soba’s Corner (2020 – ongoing) is a video installation that unpacks distinct Chinese-Canadian dishes from specific provinces. Posted on YouTube and disguised as a typical how-to cooking show, another conversation and narrative are hidden in the Canadian English closed captions and the “recipe” linked in the description box.

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.

For this window installation, a neon sign, maneki-nekos, and lucky plants from Cheung’s recent works, Adult Sweetness (2023) and Lucky Charms (2023 – ongoing), are presented alongside Soba’s Corner. 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 Corner. This scrolling space further expands the playful and layered virtual space she began creating during the COVID pandemic: bridging the imagined and the material.

Snack Witch Joni Cheung

Snack Witch Joni Cheung🍡is a grateful, uninvited guest born—and knows she wants to die—on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, Stó:lō, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh peoples. They are aCertified Sculpture Witchwith an MFA from Concordia University (2023). She holds a BFA with Distinction in Visual Art (2018) from the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. As a wicked #magicalgirl✨who eats art and makes snacks, she has exhibited and curated shows, off- and online, across Turtle Island. Currently, they are based on the stolen lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka peoples.

They are a recipient of numerous awards, including the Individual Arts Grants—Visual Artists: British Columbia Arts Council; Research and Creation Grant: Canada Council for the Arts; and the Dale and Nick Tedeschi Studio Arts Fellowship. Aside from art-making, Joni likes wandering down grocery store aisles and drinking bubble tea.

snackwitch.ca @snackwitch

Credits

Snack Witch wants to thank the many, MANY people who have helped them realize the Soba’s Corner universe thus far, including:

Brandon A. Dalmer, Rebecca Ladida, Amelia Wong-Mersereau, Philippe Dumaine, Arezu Salamzadeh, Lan "Florence" Yee, Charlie Carroll-Beauchamp, Sami Zenderoudi, Siam Obregón, Gabor Bata, and all the future people to come!

HUGE thank yous to Roxane Michel, Maxime-Alexandre Gosselin, and Michel Lefebvre for their support in creating this iteration of Soba’s Corner.

TOPO

TOPO is a Montreal-based artist-run centre whose mission is to assist and equip artists in their exploration of contemporary digital art and litterature practices.

topo.art @topo_mtl