Description

Changing Courses tracks various displaced and changing food culture narratives in Australia. From Indigenous food culture pre-colonisation to the first colonial crops, immigrant foods to contemporary super foods, food items representing these varying food cultures are sealed in vacuum bags creating a temporary architectural installation. The installation houses a series of events during the exhibition, where invited guests host a conversation on particular aspects of food culture in Australia, while sampling food specific to the conversation.

Changing Courses was part of The National: New Australian Art at Art Gallery of NSW curated by Anneke Jaspers.

Conversations:

Wed 26 April
Indigenous food culture

Join author Bruce Pascoe for a discussion on the displacement of Indigenous food cultures in Australia. In this conversation, we look at colonisation’s imposed methods of agriculture, focusing on the first colonial farming attempt in an area next to the Gallery, formally known as Farm Cove. Together we sample food made from local Indigenous plants alongside some of these imposed colonial crops.

Bruce Pascoe is of Tasmanian, Bunurong and Yuin heritage. He is a prolific writer and editor of fiction, essays and history. Pascoe’s most recent publication is Dark Emu 2014. He is a board member of First Languages Australia and Past Secretary of Bidwell-Maap Aboriginal Nation.

Food provided by local fermentation club, A Ferm Handshake.

Wed 24 May
Edible weeds

Join artist and naturalist Diego Bonetto on a weed-seeking walking tour of The Domain. Bonetto teaches us the history of these plants, revealing their social relevance and important connection to various cultures around the world. We then regroup in the exhibition for a platter of edible weeds provided by Diego in collaboration with local chef Joey Astorga. These edibles open up key points for conversation relating to weeds as a metaphor for colonisation as well the adaptation of weeds as an abundant, useable food source.

Diego Bonetto is an Italian artist, father, forager, speaker, keen naturalist and award winning cultural worker based in Sydney. Bonetto collaborates on Wild Food Map, a public domain that shares locations of wild food and medicinal plants.

Wed 28 June
Food affordability as both a product and sign of gentrification

Join architects Joel Spring, Dallas Rogers and Genevieve Murray for a discussion on the relationship between affordable housing and food cultures in Sydney. In this conversation, we look at what the changing nature of many inner city neighbourhood’s shopping strips and the replacement of cheap eateries with chic cafes can tell us about gentrification in Sydney. As a nod to these shifts, smashed avocado on sourdough will be served – provided by local fermentation club, A Ferm Handshake.

Genevieve Murray founded Future Method, a research and design studio that actively questions and pushes the line between the practical and the abstract. Dallas Rogers is a senior lecturer within the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney. Joel Spring is a Wiradjuri man who grew up in and around Redfern and the Northern Territory, and is now working as an architect at Future Method alongside key community groups and figures around the upcoming Waterloo redevelopment.

Read Ellie Buttrose’s text on the work here