THROUGH CLENCHED TEETH

Featuring Patrice Renee Washington, Jude Abu Zaineh, 

Karen Azoulay, Florence Yee

January 2019 - March 2019

Forest City Gallery

When does the act of consumption become uncomfortable? Through elucidating different materials, means of production, and cultural conventions underpinning food structures, Through Clenched Teeth brings together practices that critically address food politics under Western hegemony. 4 artists use several raw nourishment materials (food scraps, clay, flowers, and biological makeup) to address latent narratives involving diaspora, racial oppression, and archeology. 

Through Clenched Teeth uses common food practices to provide deciphered histories elucidated visual codes explaining the integration of different political systems involved with consumption. Each practice maps specific habits of feeding, weaving through disparate histories to explain how these materials contextualize uncomfortable historical narratives. Each work oxymoronically presents non-edible ingredients as mechanisms for understanding socio-political traditions, showcasing how food economies are linked to more than just sustenance.