In my grandmother's house, food is provided always by the women in the family. My aunts will crowd in the tiny, sweltering kitchen to cook and serve the men-my uncles, my male cousins, my grandfather, my father- who lounge comfortably, air-conditioned, around the kitchen table, drinking and playing cards. The men eat first, and only after they are served and full do my aunts eat, crouched in a circle, red-faced from the heat, in the kitchen.
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This installation occupied a small, unventilated room set apart from the main gallery room. Food was left out for the males in the main area, while entrance to the installation was restricted to females only.
In my grandmother's house is a small space that I wanted to claim for my gender-to blur a domestic experience of exclusion into one of exclusivity. In this chamber we have a quiet, shared and secret knowledge: the strength, the resilience, the humility of femininity .
