MINNEAPOLIS — We spend a large part of every day thinking about what we’ll eat and when, but we don’t spend a lot of time considering how we make all these choices. Why do we eat the foods we eat? Do they have ties to where we grew up or to our ethnic heritage? Maybe we rely on recipes passed down through family or ingredients that were historically readily accessible where our ancestors lived?
Artist Azania Tripp explores all these ideas in her new mixed-media show, “Okra and Indigo,” at the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery in Minneapolis. A St. Cloud native, Tripp is hoping to bring the show to the St. Cloud area sometime this year.
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Tripp uses her own heritage — Black from her dad’s side, Singaporean and Eurasian from her mom’s side — as a base for the show.
"I think (food) tells a really clear story about who we are,” Tripp said. “It gives me a sense of belonging that … I need, and if other people want to build that relationship, too, the exhibit gives that information for people to explore that curiosity.”
The show is a culinary storytelling art experience that shares the story of historical chefs from the Black and African American community and contemporary Black Minnesotans' relationships with food. It features mixed-media pieces by Tripp, including collages. She’s also decorated tables and chairs, which she hopes the public will use.
Food wasn’t a natural area of interest for Tripp.
“I don't cook well. I don't feel comfortable in the kitchen. So I guess this was my way to learn about my community in a different way,” she said.
Okra is a major staple food across the African diaspora, but Tripp didn’t learn about it until she was an adult. Okra’s significance was highlighted in the Netflix special “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America,” based on a book of the same name by Jessica Harris. This inspired Tripp to think about her own connection with food and all the history, forces and circumstances that go into creating culture and the food we eat.
Indigo dye is used throughout the exhibit. Tripp wanted to feature it because of its history as a cash crop in the U.S. and its origin in East Asia. So Indigo has connections with ancestors on both sides of her family.
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The exhibit’s chairs highlight the history of African American chefs (and one food scientist), including Hercules Posey, Freda Deknight, Edna Lewis, Patrick Clark and Sara Thompson. It was a history Tripp didn’t learn in school.
The collages focus on contemporary, local community members that Tripp interviewed about their experiences with food.
For instance, interviewee Peace Mitchell lives on a rural farm. She told Tripp about growing grapes and sunflowers in the backyard, raising chickens, canning, and cultivating a beehive.
“Just learning about individual stories and what it was like for her — she's mixed race … like growing up in a rural part of Minnesota on a … Black-owned farm and how she navigated that isolation,” Tripp said.
You’ll find representations of all those elements — sunflowers, grapes, chickens and pollinators — in Peace’s collage. Every piece has meaning, including the wreath shape, which Mitchell makes for the holidays.
She also interviewed her dad, a professor in the ethnic and women’s studies department at St. Cloud State University.
“It helps me understand my dad and my family,” Tripp said. “When I had my friend reunion this past summer, I asked some of my cousins … what food do you eat? I've never asked that. So I think it just sparked like having different kinds of conversations.”
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From her cousins, Tripp learned about the biscuits her grandma used to make. Her grandma died when Tripp was young, so she never got to experience that.
“Even though if someone has passed, it doesn't mean that they're forgotten and that … what they've contributed … it existed,” she said. “I just have to read, and I have to ask.”
If you go
What: “Okra and Indigo” art exhibit
When: Now through March 30
Where: Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery in Minneapolis
Opening reception: 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at the museum. Details at
maahmg.org/event/opening-reception.
Event: “Okra and Indigo: A Meal and Wearable Art-Making Experience,” 1 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17. Tickets are $25 at
tinyurl.com/3469epaz
.
More info:
maahmg.org/exhibition/okra-and-indigo-azania-tripp-maahmg-artist-in-residence
and
facebook.com/ObsidianPause
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