The artist opens a new exhibition in October
This week we welcome Sarah K. Khan, a multimedia maker/scholar who writes and makes art—paper, books, prints, photography, porcelain and films — about food, culture, women and migrants. Her work is informed by global fieldwork and research. She has lived with Bedouins in Palestine, traversed Queens N.Y., and has documented the food, customs and conditions of women cooks and farmers in India and Fez, Morocco. Her most recent body of work, which includes prints, animation and porcelain inspired by a 16th century Central Indian Cookbook/Book of Life, is the result of a Kohler Arts/Industry Residency in fall 2022.
Her work has appeared in a broad range of contexts including the publications Women and Migration(s): Responses in Art History I, and Women and Migration(s) II. It has been shown at the Museum of the Moving Image (film), Madison Children’s Museum (photography, paper), the Kimmel Gallery at NYU (photography), Queens Museum (photography and film), Asian Arts Initiative (film), and Asian American Writers Workshop Open City (writing, film), among others. Khan studied Middle Eastern history (BA), public health and nutrition (MPH, MS) and traditional ecological knowledge systems/plant sciences in South Asia and China (PhD). A two-time Fulbright scholar, Khan has earned multiple art residencies, grants and fellowships. Learn more about Khan’s work on her website.
In October, Khan has a solo exhibition opening at BRIC House in downtown Brooklyn titled Speak Sing Shout: We, Too, Sing America. Inspired by pre-colonial Indian Ocean worlds, the project delves into the multitude of cultures, languages, sounds and smells that she embodies to salvage submerged narratives and transpose them onto blue and white porcelains, layered prints and films. At the center of the exhibition is an eight-piece set of blue and white porcelain serving vessels that dwell on a tiled table that highlights an abstracted Islamic world map created before cartographers documented the Americas. The exhibition will be on view from Oct. 7 to Dec. 23.
On Oct. 9, from 6:30-9:30 p.m., a free special event will be held at BRIC House in collaboration with Stanford Institute for Advancing Just Societies (IAJS), and Zócalo Public Square. Epicenter NYC is proud to be a community media sponsor. Attendees will experience a live performance by Khan as well as a panel moderated by Stanford IAJS faculty co-director Brian Lowery and featuring James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and Jewish cuisine expert, Joan Nathan, community organizer and immigration activist Power Malu, and food studies scholar Krishnendu Ray. The panel will explore how what we eat and where it’s from shape our sense of identity. A reception will follow with complimentary drinks, small bites by street vendors from the Street Vendor Project and EatOffBeat, art-viewing, and music by DJ Kofta. Get more details and RSVP here.
