In May, I moved out of my family home and to the city. While quarantined away from my family and living in a new place, I cook familiar family foods to remind me of the feeling of home. The sizzling aromatics of ginger, garlic, and green onion instantly lift my mood and the salty taste of soy sauce on white rice make me feel warm. In my Chinese family, recipes are not passed down on written cards. Ingredients are never recorded beside precise measurements and cooking instructions. Recipes are inherited by time spent in the kitchen with Ahma, whose cooking is intuition. Although, I cannot share the kitchen in person with my Ahma now, our Facetime calls offer the next best alternative. In Cantonese, Ahma instructs me by describing textures and techniques. But like the food, our Facetime conversations do not follow a precise recipe either.
ARTIST BIO
Karen Kar Yen Law (she/her) is a first-generation Cantonese Chinese-Canadian who lives and practices in Tkaronto. Law is a recent graduate from Queen’s University with a BFA (Honours) and BEd. Law’s artistic practice oscillates between printmaking and painting processes to create two-dimensional abstract works. For the Quarantine Quapusle, Law experiments with video storytelling under the mentorship of filmmaker, Keith Lock and performer, Nightingale Nguyen. Law’s work has been exhibited throughout Katarokwi including the Union Gallery, the Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts, and the 12 Cat Arts Collective.
IG: @karen_kylaw
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