Recipes for Recipes: A Lone Bookbinder’s Search for the Stories about Food, Family, and Culture in Columbia is an online exhibition by SVAD and Stormwater Studios Artist in Residence, Evelyn Wong.

II. In the Studio

I consider myself to be experimental in my processes, and my research methodologies can sometimes be more conceptual, while at other times lean scientific. For this particular project, I wanted to explore both ends of the spectrum and push the possibilities of how a book could be approached (conceptual: can a film still be a book of sorts?) as well as what can be used as paint/ink (scientific: what within a food item makes color, how can I extract it, and how can I turn it into a usable coloring agent?).

Attempting to transcribe the interviews felt like I was writing an entire book, or at least a massive essay, from the conversations between two people. Placing the text onto the still images and layering audio on top made me realize that I was indeed making a digital book of sorts. There is a process to selecting and organizing the images from the numerous photographs I had taken that was a form of storyboarding similar to what I usually take to making an artist’s book. The audio portion is interesting because the first few establishments that I visited have an audio portion, but as the project was forced to evolve due to the challenges of COVID-19, I realized that I would necessarily have to narrate the later portion of my intended film. From a critical standpoint, my place would also shift within the narrative of the film as I go from unseen and unheard interviewer to the main narrator, which would also change my position from an interactive presence (with the restaurateurs) to an outside voyeur of sorts. For now, I was able to put together an 11-second clip that I am overjoyed with. While it is not perfect and still needs a lot of editing, I have learned so much to get to this point and feel like it is a huge accomplishment for this analog- craftsperson.

The Process: Photo, Video, and Sound Editing

Click on a thumbnail to enlarge.

Color, Printing, and Book Experiments

My experiments with color in the studio resulted in a number of beautiful dyes and inks, but one of my goals was to turn at least one of these colors into an ink I could use to print onto my final bound book. Mulling the ink proved to be a near impossible task with the time and materials that I had on hand, because I was unable to get anything close to a finely ground dry pigment that I could mix into a binder. Furthermore, I was extremely anxious about going out to purchase wood for a woodblock print, so I settled on the linoleum piece that I had on-hand. The combination of using a wet ink on linoleum of course led to hilarious and sad results. My plan is to create a take-out box to house the handbound book of recipes and family stories, with paper “fortune cookies” inside to share additional recipes. Instead of a (stereo)typical image of a pagoda on the outside of the takeout box, it would feature something distinctly South Carolinian, such as the palmetto and crescent, or the South Carolina State House. For now, you can see my sad mock-up that I will look forward to making improvements on when I return to my studio in Maine.

Workshops

Some of you were able to join in for the workshops, so I am thankful I had a chance to meet you either in-person or online. If you haven’t had a chance to view the videos yet, you can stop by the SVAD Facebook page and follow along!