Plating — Em Frank

PLATING

2023

WATCH THIS SPACE
Alice Springs

A collaboration between Mparntwe's potters and home chefs in celebration of Watch This Space's 30th birthday.

Each pair developed a concept for their piece, designing a sculptural ‘plate’ and a cake-themed dish. The dish was extravagantly plated on the piece and presented in a performative exhibition, where the audience was invited to eat the cakes.

I collaborated with my friend and local photgorapher Sara Maiorino. Our work responds to the ceramic and culinary traditions of the cultures from which we each come. My heritage is steeped in a Jewish Ashkenazi tradition and Sara's family come from Calabria and Basilicata in Italy's South.

The vessels in our work are derived from the form and features of a hanukkiah. The hanukkiah is lit in celebration of the ‘miracle of light’ where a single jar of oil kept the menorah burning for 8 days and nights during a time of war.

The squiggly sweets held in the vessels are frittelle, traditional fried doughnuts of the Basilicata region in Italy. The dough is shaped into wavy forms, fried in oil and covered in honey. Sara followed their nonna Maria's recipe. During Hannukah, Jewish people eat doughnuts called sufganiyot, which are filled with jam and fried in oil to represent the miracle of light.

Plating Project
Photos by Bec Capp

Living and labouring on Kaurna Yarta

@em___frank