Sound Installation, Robot Vacuums, Broadcast, Writing
2020-2024
Sesame Opens a Skylight is a recipe-related participatory radio station in an abandoned railway factory community in Chongqing, China. It interrogates the capitalist economy and its role in modernizing our diet through a historical and sociological investigation of the sweet potato. Native to Central and South America, the sweet potato was brought to Asia through its introduction to the Philippines by the Spanish as a colonial crop, ultimately contributing significantly to population growth across the continent. The taste conjures up collective memories of famine, post-war food shortages, migration, land planning, and environmental governance.
This project started from 2020 and collaborated with the local transportation broadcast until 2022. In the exhibition space, the video and sound are separately transported by two cleaning robots that mimics trains. It mirrors how a folktale can be generated through retelling.
Building on sweet potato candy stories I collected, I am interested in the rise of sugar to its dominant position in our diets and the relationship between the origins of the food industry and the imperial trade. In 2023, the project explores and expands on this history through the collection of Pan-Asian sweet potato recipes.
Beyond the written and sound elements in the project, the collected recipes will be presented via a mobile food truck in multiple factory communities in the end of 2024. Local residents will be invited to make, adapt and innovate the recipes through ‘ingredient sharing', 'random cooking' and 'side dish recycling'. Participants will build new relationships through a shared experience of food.
