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Find out more about Jennifer’s journey as a GAF artist here
What’s driving your piece?
It’s a long story. This year, I looked back, and reconnected with my past in 2020. So my initial thinking was: how do I challenge and question time and equilibrium? Food is perishable, and especially pastries with sugar, chocolate and butter. But then once individual food objects get preserved in resin, they become individual entities of an enclosed ecosystem, and they become part of sculptures that will last for a long time.
What’s the process of making your vision come to life?
May Last year, during the peak of the pandemic, I was trying to make Barbari bread, as part of Chef Behzad’s class -it was so hard to find any flour and spices. So out of nowhere, I tried calling a neighborhood bakery named Aux Merveilleux de Fred asking to purchase flour. Surprisingly, I was gifted with bread flour. Then I got Lebanese spices Sumac and Za’atar from another neighborhood eatery Manousheh. Because of these neighborhood spots, I successfully collected the ingredients to make a feast of Labenese mezze and Barbari bread. I went back to the eateries to share my bread with the staff afterwards. I think moments like that were very unique. When I was brainstorming this art project I started to identify neighborhood spots that were very impactful to me in 2020. I never had a chance to, like, sit down and think about what it is about New York. That’s when I was like, “I’m going to go back in time and also preserve some of the iconic food; and preserve moments in time that were important to me through food”. The coffee sculpture is made of beans from Daily Provisions.
Themes, places and people
The overarching theme is equilibrium and preservation of food and time in forms of sculpture, photography, and videos. There are four driving groupings – french affaire, manouche, shrimp dumplis. So how did I pick these four places? Actually, as part of my Gallatin master application, I spent quite a bit of time, sitting outside of the cafe Daily Provisions and writing my statement of purpose. After I got accepted, I went back to the cafe and met with my mentor. So the spot Daily Provisions was meaningful to me. During the pandemic, I was not able to serve my cravings of … (and my feelings of) missing home, that they have the shrimp dumplings, that they make them frozen, so that I could actually steam them, and have a little taste of home. So that’s why I picked these four places.
And then about combining the science aspect: because I came from an engineering background. And just like throughout the art making process, I constantly went back to the four places. And then I said oh, “I wanted to do a multimedia project. I want to take pictures, talk to the staff, and make videos. I also wanted to capture the ambience. I love how they dress. They (the staff) are very supportive. I told them: “I’m an art student at NYU. I am doing a master program with part of the art show with a very tight timeline”. And they’re like “okay, I want to support you, just tell me what you need”. So that’s why I thought “wow, that’s what makes New York local small business so unique, as we all help each other!”. So that’s why they helped me. They support me so much! I then sent an email back to them. I took all the footage. I want to give it back to them so they can use it for their social media website. But also I invited them to come to a gallery and some of them pledged a comment fee. And then I that’s why I said a while I wanted to really appreciate them by giving them shout out because when we look at the set of the gallery, it’s very minimalistic, there isn’t really much information about who may watch, right, like what are these things for and like, how are the sculpture being made, but people all share they’re like, “Oh my god, I’m hungry. So hungry!”, or like ‘that looks so good”. So I want to give a shout out to these places that helped me so much during the art making process by acknowledging these pieces are from them, and that the staff were super helpful.
(Note: To see the artist’s feature and acknowledgement of bakeries and people she worked with, please go to the end of the article.)
How does your art piece relate to your study and your life experience?
I came from a very rigorous engineering background growing up. I’m really glad that was the path I went down. I think it’s like a traditional Chinese upbringing, but my parents have always been very encouraging for me to pursue my interests. So growing up I did. They actually let me choose. They asked me if I wanted to do piano or dance, so I said I wanted to dance, so I did dance, painting and chess and like Chinese calligraphy. But I’m always more on a math and science side. Then when I went to Cornell, I majored in electrical Computer Engineering, which only has 10% girls. And then I also like, oh, let me like, minor in Information Science, which is more like design, you act and think about human computer interaction. I really liked it. But I’m always on the engineering and tech side. The quarantine last year pushed me to start creating more things. I always really like craft or cooking and then I start thinking about the idea of documenting myself creating things and seeing what happens and through that process. I got a lot of footage of me creating things showing the process, and then also questioned what’s making me love decorating a cake and painting oil paintings. They are actually very similar. For example, I started using a knife for oil painting to decorate the cake. That sparked my interest to learn more at school – and I found Gallatin!
Jennifer wants to shout out to the following bakeries featured in her piece:
Aux Merveilleux de Fred, 37 8th Ave, New York, NY 10014 (Instagram @auxmerveilleuxdefred_officiel)
Manousheh Bleecker, 193 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10012 (Instagram @manoushehnyc)
Daily Provisions, 103 E 19th St, New York, NY 10003 ( Instagram @dailyprov)
Technical support: Thank you staff – Celina, Ziad, Seth, and Matt!
Photo credit to Jennifer Qian and Emma Comrie
Find out more about Jennifer’s journey as a GAF artist here
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