Maya Yadid's food related art
Art Crush #5: Meet this artist who tells diasporic stories through art and food!
Who? Maya Yadid is multidisciplinary artist whose work combines ceramic and mixed materials such as bread. Her other tools include archival research, cooking and social interventions. She is based in Upstate NY.
Why?
Her practice explores her Arab Jewish identity. Yes Arab AND Jewish. (Let’s not forget that the world is as black and white as some people want to make us think.)
One thing I adore about her art is the questions it raises. From our very first studio visit, years ago, when she was doing her MFA at Hunter in NYC, I still remember one of those questions: Why are some of the ceramics from the Middle East that are made nowadays and sold to tourists by the side of the road, less valuable than their ancient equivalent? Aren’t they made by the exact same people, with the same clay, and the same technics…?
A series of her sculptures is based on the fact kneeding bread and clay are some of the most ancestral actions and movements. Both are very similar and very different at the same time: When fired, bread expands whereas clay shrinks. She combined both materials to make stunning amphoras. One was showed at The Invisible Dog Art Center last year as well as NADA Foreland in 2022.
For Maya Yadid, food plays a role in historical remembrance of her Mizrahi identity. And my sweet spot for her practice is actually her ‘performance dinners’ which combine the power of food and memories: Far from being an exuberant spread of food (in NYC we find too many of those grand displays of food and croquenbouches, right?) they are about simple delicious foods, to convey intimate feelings, thoughts and share personal stories.
For example her Tribute to Leah was a magnificiant way to deal with her grief of losing her grandmother. She cooked her grandma’s food, and served it in plates she made in clay. Leah was born in Palestine in 1929. Leah’s parents came to Jerusalem from Urfa, located in southeast Turkey, on the border to Syria. So the food at the dinner was a mix of so many different cultures and influences, Armenian, Yemenite... It was so rich culturally. But we also enjoyed understanding the meaning of certain words and their translation into different languages.
I especially love how her art involves you in a gentle way. In her Tribute to Leah, Maya said “Leah […] would always wear red nail polish, half peeled off from all the labor around the kitchen.” so she painted each guests’ nails in red. Maya had also written a beautiful personal text to pay homage to her grandma, which she read aloud. And all the guests participated by reading aloud a word or a sentence she had attributed to us, creating a patchwork of voices. By doing so- in such a simple way- we all shared a bit of her grief.
Price Range: less than $100 for plates - $250 for candle sticks - $400-600 for menorahs and artworks from $2,000- $8,000
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More Details:
She was highlited by Hauser and Wirth’s viewing room.