food as art

Curing Time

By / Photography By | September 05, 2018
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The display at World's Fair Gallery was Kelli's fourth iteration of this project. As an artist, her primary medium is clay, but at the time she conceptualized this idea, she was beginning to experiment with home canning. "I remember looking at my collection of tiny jam jars," Kelli explains, "and envisioning how powerful a large-scale installation of them would be, particularly as a vehicle for engaging topics such as labor, value, community, time and impermanence."

In Pursuit of Preservation and Sustenance

Last fall, World’s Fair Gallery on Providence’s West Side hosted Curing Time, artist Kelli Rae Adams’ vibrant exploration of preserving the harvest. The walls of the gallery were filled with a rainbow of preserved produce, procured from local farms throughout the state, including Little City Growers Cooperative, Hill Orchards, Wishing Stone Farm, Southside Community Land Trust Youth enterprise Farm, as well as many others. The array was so captivating, we wanted to share it with Edible Rhody readers even though the display has since been taken down and the goods dispersed.

“Curing Time was an incredible celebration of the seasons, the harvest and the care and hard work it takes to embrace it,” says gallery founder Willa Van Nostrand. “It was a great visual metaphor for slow food, the art of living and eating thoughtfully.”

For more information on the artist, visit KelliRaeAdams.com and for the gallery, visit WorldsFairGallery.com.

“In the midst of frenetic modern-day life, it can be easy to take a given product for granted without really considering the process involved,” says Kelli. “My intention with this work is to bring that process back into focus.”

For more information on the artist, visit KelliRaeAdams.com and for the gallery, visit WorldsFairGallery.com.

Photo 1: Even after years of doing this project (she plans to return to it again in the future), Kelli is continually surprised at the immense amount of time and labor involved in the canning process, not to mention that of the farmers in growing the produce.
Photo 2: "It's important to me that the pickles taste as good as they look," Kelli says, "so I spend significant time beforehand researching recipes and seeking out particular spice and brine combinations that sound appealing for a given vegetable. Of the 20 varieties included in this last show, I used a different recipe for each."
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