In my crunchy opinion
2022 – 2023
Mix media
Globalization affects our Food preferences. Yet, cultural identity still derives very much from the traditional food and the traditional cooking. To eat the Dutch Pinda kaas (peanut butter) in Australia, would cost time, money, carbon dioxide emissions, but it would taste like home….or almost.
Relocated to a new place, one always looks for a connection to something familiar. Very often this is a favorite traditional food. Taste is one of our mind's most powerful tools for retaining memories. Whatever we eat as children will be the tastiest and most desirable. Whenever we eat it, it will remind us of home, but does it taste the same even if we try it somewhere else?
In the city of Eindhoven - home to many immigrant communities, Tina Zlatina picks up specimens of foreign food, imported to the Netherlands. The selection is based on country of origin, shape, popularity, but most of all, based on the fact that all of them (with very few exceptions) are produced abroad and imported in the Netherlands.
Globally, transportation plays a significant role in the food supply and has led to an increase in the environmental, social and economic burden associated with it. However, this is the price any immigrant would pay to consume a delicacy from their homeland.
Several interviews conducted with immigrants show that although the food is exactly the same and has been packaged in the country of origin, for them, it does not taste the same as at home. According to Tina, the conclusion is that context and environment play a huge role on the perceptions, including taste. This phenomenon is a result of the collective consciousness, i.e. the brainwave connection at a specific place or in a society.
In a series of works Tina presents her point of view on food or anything else taken out of its context.
Perfect replicas of Italian sun-dried tomatoes, Greek olives, Bulgarian soletti and many other foreign food items, imported in The Netherlands, are cast in fine porcelain and terracotta, with a delicate touch of glaze, and presented as artefacts of an archeological exposition. All labeled with their exact title, place and time of discovery, they are truly valuable finds belonging to another place and time.
Artefacts, 2022. Ceramics, museum stand, museum labels. Variable dimensions
A selection of the foreign food items is baked as the traditional Dutch cookies Kruidnoten. No matter their origin, taste, shape, colour, once they are in The Netherlands, for Tina they all taste of The Netherlands, they taste like delicious Kruidnoten.
Kruidnoten, 2023. Food grade silicone moulds, kruidnoten dough, plate. Variable dimensions
“Pinda Kaas” presents the contrast between the environment (a white ornamented frame) and the object - a roughly modelled jar of Dutch peanut butter.
