And you’ll know its done when the oil stops bubbling
Open Kitchen 2023 | Story Circle | And you’ll know its done when the oil stops bubbling | view cookbook
An Open Source Kitchen Series of Workshops and Community Cookbook
October- December 2023
Sharing Session @ Open Kitchen – December 15, 2023
Food is community, food is power, food is legacy, food is memory, food is love, food is home, food is life. Food has the capacity of bringing folks from different backgrounds together. Food is personal history, oral history, and oral tradition. We want to use food as commonplace, a space to come together and talk about hard issues in soft spaces.
Open Source Gallery is thrilled to partner with multidisciplinary artist Mike Durkin on his project, and you will know it’s done, when the oil stops bubbling, which looks at the role that food and the sharing of recipes play in different communities.
Whether it’s a recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation, or a recipe we make, simply because it makes us feel good, this project uses dialogue around food as the starting point for a deeper engagement on the status of our neighborhoods, honoring those who are no longer with us through the sharing of their recipes or challenging access to food and distribution.
For this project, Mike will work with participants over the course of 6 workshops to record their stories and prepare their recipes, developing an intimate and personal connection through storytelling. The workshops will take place in November and December at a homeless shelter, a community food pantry, and at Open Source Gallery with community members. Participants can contact mike to participate in workshops. Alternatively people can participate and sign up for an evening at the Open Kitchen, where they can cook for an audience of strangers and friends a simple meal and add an artistic element to an evening of sharing food.
The project will culminate with the creation of a recipe book that highlights the diverse population through the recipes. There will also be a night at Open Source, where recipes and stories will culminate in an evening at Open Kitchen
Mike Durkin (he/him/y’all) is a large-bodied multidisciplinary social practice performance artist residing in Little Carribean, Brooklyn. the intersection between art and the everyday guides mike (lowercase to de-center himself for the process). He has created site-responsive social practice productions exploring houselessness, food access, place, and gentrification. Upcoming projects will be held at Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, and Reed College. mike’s work has been presented with the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center at the University of Houston, the Performance Studies program at Texas A&M University, with the College of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences at the University of Central Arkansas, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Brandywine River Museum, Barnes Foundation, Mt. Moriah Cemetery, the Life Do Grow Farm, and in parks, churches, and fields, diners, virtually, and most recently with Mural Arts on a collaborative quilt making project with the Color Me Back Same-Day work program. mike has held residencies with Revolve Art Gallery in Asheville, NC, Space at Ryder Farm, Drop Forge and Tool, the Hambidge Arts Center in Rabun Gap, GA, and the Greenhouse Lab with The Orchard Project. mike is part of the 2017 MFA in Devised Performance class with Pig Iron Theatre Company/University of the Arts.
Featured Image: mike durkin: Trina making her famous Potato salad
