Exhibition Dates: July 12 – August 24, 2024
Closing Reception: Friday August 23, 2024 @ 5 – 8 pm
Artist Demo Workshop: Saturday August 24, 2024 @ 1pm at Martha Street Studio.
This demo workshop is free to attend and open to the public.
Exhibition Text by Alana MacDougall
Martha Street Studio is pleased to present to be held in two hands, a duo exhibition by Sonali Menezes (ON) and Joni Cheung (QC).
//
It takes two,
hands to
clear off a table
wash a tower of dishes
cut a mango
serve a meal
feed others
nourish ourselves
We are reaching,
for a plate of food
for connections to the lands and waters we currently call home
to the places our ancestors cared for and flourished with
We call back
through food
patiently waiting for our voices to intertwine
over long distances
Staring at bright marigold stains
that are probably older than we are
our minds wander to meals shared with family members
While eating alone
Something we have had to learn
growing up in so-called Canada
Getting lost in the messiness
in the markings and spaces between
are our (hi)stories and relations
//
Snack Witch Joni Cheung and Sonali Menezes grew up eating food. Often with two hands: to pull apart a steamed bun, to rip off a piece of bhatura to dip into channa; to offer a serving, to cut a mango. Sometimes the messiness was cleaned up with a good morning towel, marks revealing the history of what food was shared. Other times, haldi stains remain on skin, wooden spoons, and under nails. Both artists are part of Asian diasporas born here in so-called Canada, originating in Hong Kong, and Goa, India respectively. As they navigate the in-betweenness of being settlers and second-generation immigrants, they reach back to their homelands through food. They connect to the land through taste, by eating, in gratitude, by sharing around a table.
//
ARTIST STATEMENTS
Through an interdisciplinary artistic practice, Snack Witch Joni Cheung investigates the interdependent relationship between objects, place, and identity. As a Canadian-born Hong Kong-Chinese queer, anglophone woman, Cheung uses this lens to navigate discourses of transnationalism, migration, displacement, and diasporas.
Growing up tirelessly grasping at their language ∴ culture, Cheung soothed her hunger for connection via online communication/sharing platforms, and by eating. These ingredients helped a hopeful pessimist calm rolling waves of loneliness and learn about their heritage and ancestry. Sifting through family memories of displacement—usually in-between conversations held over food-covered tables—and prickly experiences of trying to blend in until smooth, nourish points of interest to reflect and respond to global contexts and (hi)stories.
Conducting research is a ritual that molds the way Cheung works. Chewing on the spectrum of transparency ↔ opacity and translation of forms (physical ↔ digital) and stories, Cheung collects and layers still and moving images from archives and contemporary media, words, sound(scapes), objects, and places. This research simmers into installations conjured up with sculptures, performances, texts, audio explorations, photographs, and videos—marinating and transforming accumulated ephemera often overlooked by those outside of my communities. As of late, Cheung has been using food and humour to draw people in with the familiar, to confront the uncomfortable histories embedded in the everyday.
🍵🌶️🥭🍲🥟🥘🍦🍰🍍
//
All hail mango, queen of the fruits and balm for seasonal depression! How to cut a mango is based on Sonali Menezes’ theory that if she ate a mango every day, she would no longer be seasonally depressed. She began in the depths of winter and asked close family members to demonstrate on camera how they cut a mango. Sonali continued with one of her favourite things: playing around in the print studio. She finished by assembling her final homage to the mango by exploring her favourite grocery stores in Scarborough, Ontario.
//
ARTIST BIOS
🔮 Snack Witch Joni Cheung 🍡 (she/they) 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 a Certified Sculpture Witch with 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.
Snack Witch Joni Cheung gratefully acknowledges the support of the BC Arts Council for the realization of this project.
@snackwitch
https://snackwitch.ca/
//
Sonali Menezes (she/her) is a Hamilton-based multidisciplinary artist and writer. She holds an Honours BA in Studio Art from the University of Guelph and is the youngest of triplets. While her work spans many mediums, she has been most recently focused in zines, video and printmaking. Her zines live in personal and public zine libraries worldwide. Sonali makes art as a way to find meaning under the weight of capitalism and the unending anxiety of the climate crisis. She makes art about food often and is currently writing her first book named after her popular 2022 zine, Depression Cooking.
Sonali Menezes gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario.
@sonaleeeeeee
https://sonali-menezes.com/