Snow Fungus Series

A home cook and student of Chinese medicine, I’m interested in foodways across diasporas. Which is to ask: what does it mean to cook through the portal of older recipes? What does it mean to self-diagnose and self-dose, using logics and languages received through questionable translation, colonial experts; using medicinal ingredients sourced through the Vietnamese grocer in the Italian Market, or from the pantry I keep as archive, with dry goods kept from my last visit to Shanghai, bags brimming with the realer stuff, as if it may be the last time.

In this installation, I cite snow fungus, Tremella fuciformis, in a common storebought format — compressed blocks that expand when soaked. Displayed in 3 stages of hydration; pictured here, it is unfurled, hanging to dry.

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Screenprint on silk habotai, thread, gelatin, cornstarch, water
First exhibited at AUTOMAT
As part of the group show A Thing Shared, organized by Tess Wei
August 2022
8 x 8 inches (at fullest)
Edition of 20