The recent exhibition at Ateliers’89 Punto Di Beyas Aruba, is inspired by spices.
Teacher, artist, master-chef Razia Barsatie prepared a delicious meal for her students, once a week, then sent them off to create their artistic vision using spices, the powdery exotic and aromatic flavoring, in use in the Surinam kitchen, black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, cardamon, applying the powders like paint, resulting in an attractive palate of Fall colors.
The food prepared inspired a lovely exhibition that is also exceptionally fragrant, as the spices continue to delight, in their dried form, as paintings and installations. Many of the works enjoy an environmentally friendly resin, made of tapioca, which preserves the art and lends it its luminosity.
Food is known to have a great influence on creation. French writer Marcel Proust wrote seven volumes totaling around 3,200 pages of memoires, À la recherche du temps perdu, after he bit into a petite madeleine, a small cake his aunt used to bake. The memories the cake invoked flooded his imagination, the same as Razia’s cooking inspired the Ateliers students.
After all, it is a fact that the tiniest amount of spice can dramatically improve a dish, and spark our creativity at the same time.
The exhibition titled, Savory Memoirs in Colored Spices, opened on September 29th and will remain on public display on Dominicanessenstraat 34, Oranjestad Aruba
Eleven local artists participated in the culinary/artistic adventure, and they present paintings, sculptures, installations and video animation.
A special room is dedicated to their studies, their etudes, of their final artwork.
Razia Barsatie is a visual artist, specializing in art installation, video installation, sculptures, scent art, drawings, and storytelling. She was invited by Ateliers’89 Punto Di Beyas Aruba, to teach a course in Aruba, much-enjoyed by her students.
Thank you Chrislene Arends, Public Relations, for the fun preview tour!
