i e v a
g r i g e l i o n y t e
Interdisciplinary artist based on the West coast of Scotland.
Talking through taste.
Working across diverse media, incorporating sculpture, food, design, and participatory performances, I create site-specific work which investigates land and reimagines landscapes. Using taste as an artistic medium, my work explores the land and the links that bind us to it through the vegetation, scents, and textures found there. I am interested in taste as an intimate way of communicating, one which speaks directly to our bodies and goes beyond the rational borders of our perception. The outcomes of my work are multisensory food sharings, offering emergent rituals to be completed by participants with their presence and experiences.
My intuitive process is found somewhere between the culinary arts, science and practical magic, and involves wandering on foot, foraging, and experimenting with food. My research is an eclectic collection of readings on botany, ecology, agronomy, architecture and gastronomy. I am particularly interested in themes which address the systemic problems of how we produce, distribute and consume food. This research is complemented by kitchen experimentation, from various forms of food preservation to making ice cream, often flavoured with common weeds and other under-appreciated local abundance. These radical though subtle kitchen/studio explorations enable me to create experiences that challenge our thinking through the seemingly gentle and unremarkable action of tasting.