A Seat at our Table, Solo Exhibition

Kenneth says of the project, "Food has always been a love of mine; coming from a family of chefs and restaurant owners, like many other immigrants we sold food as a way to survive and eventually thrive in London. It’s amazing to think that my grandmother was a rice picker, my father cooked rice for British customers in a British Chinese restaurant and now his son is photographing this food and presenting it in an art gallery. This changing narrative is something I wanted to capture in the exhibition.

The food of the West has often been captured and celebrated in classical still-life paintings, but I wondered about the beauty behind other cultures’ dishes, ingredients which have been overlooked by a Western lens.

So I began to interview Redbridge residents about their stories growing up in Ilford, hearing their excitement as they spoke of dishes, meals or rituals carried out around the table. An 87-year-old Irish woman who recalled the gatherings in the pubs of her childhood, finding sanctuary and familiarity in the sounds of instruments and games she played as a girl. An Indian child learning to cook, watching his mother’s hands present dishes to his father and uncles. A group of Malaysian midwives and nurses, newly arrived in Redbridge, dreaming of the Chinese New Year dinner table they’d left behind, listening to the sound of their families laughing and celebrating over a long-distance phone call. Every table holds a different story and a different relationship to this place we call home – this exhibition highlights the beauty of these dishes, rituals, and stories that take place around the table.”