The Vietnamese edition of The People's Pantry is a collaboration between myself and Winsal Yang, a Los Angeles-based home chef.
Winsal is a first-generation Chinese-American. She grew up in a multi-generational immigrant household in New York City, where food was the preferred mode of communication – the phrase “eat more” almost always translates to “be well.” The kitchen and the dining table were the centers of family activity growing up, a place for the 13 members of her family to sit together and celebrate being together through food and activity.
Food keeps her connected to her family and her cultural heritage. Most of her recipes come from her own memories growing up cooking traditional Cantonese dishes with her family in New York. But days, however, she can't help but crave a cheese slice or pizza – but that doesn't mean she isn't going to give it her all when preparing her traditional Lunar New Year feast.
$20 from every print sold will be donated to the Chinese - American Planning Council in New York City whose mission is to promote the social and economic empowerment of Chinese American, immigrant, and low-income communities.
11" x 14" Risograph art print, printed on 65# cream stock. Each art print will come as a signed edition. Printed in the USA.
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The People's Pantry is a project that explores immigration through food. You could say that food is one of the foundations of culture – everyone's gotta eat, and often the most approachable way to share culture is through cuisine. But food is something that so many of us take for granted. The availability of "American staples" like ketchup, Wonderbread, potato chips, and the like are almost a given at any American supermarket. For many immigrants, refugees, and their families, however, finding the products we grew up with is a taller order. We do not see these products lining the shelves of our local Safeway or Cub, but instead in the family-owned specialty markets tucked away in cities across the country. Depending on where you live, these sauces or snacks or seasonings can sometimes feel like rarities – elusive products that you have to make a special trip for, but the comforts they bring are immeasurable.
The People's Pantry began as a way to illustrate the foods that I grew up with in my Filipino-American household. But everyone who is part of a diaspora has their own version of this illustration. With this series, I hope to capture some of those stories by partnering with individuals who have their own unique relationships with the foods of their cultural heritage. $20 from the purchase of each print in The People's Pantry collection is donated to the non-profit of my collaborator's choosing.
"Risograph is a print process which combines the best of digital and traditional print: a hand-made look and feel with the speed and efficiency of a modern printer. Risograph ink is made from a combination of environmentally friendly soy oil, water and pigment, the prints are reminiscent of newspaper ink and it is possible to smudge the ink. Riso is like screen printing in that each ink color is layered on separately. A single piece of paper will run through our machines several times for multi-color projects and the overlap of colors can be irregular." – Risolve Studio