✯ zines
✯ ceramics
✯ photography
✯ radio
✯ more things!!!
Social Practice
Diaspora Kitchen (2025)A research project on how identity, memory, and experiences of migration live in the ways we cook and eat. Participants were asked to bring a recipe in mind that reminds them of home, and were tasked to record it on a piece of paper along with an illustration and an opportunity to pair it with its story of significance with the challenge of diverting away from listing exact measuring units and focusing on the senses: What does home smell like? What does it taste like? Sound like? Feel? How did your grandmothers and mothers cook?
As participants were getting settled, I began with sharing a recipe of my own: Soda Chanh Đường, a simple Vietnamese lemon soda that continues to be my favorite well into adulthood. This recipe was shared Rachel Ray style and unexpectedly featured my mother, who ended up being a guide to tell me whether or not I was putting enough sugar or too much of it.
We shared our recipes at the lunch table and spoke fondly of not only the meals that we eat to remind us of home, but also of the people that used to make it for us. We spoke of the history embedded in each ingredient, each pinch of seasoning, the things that would occur in order for the meal to taste right. The amount of people in the kitchen, the things that make it not like home. We spoke of the people that made us feel whole , with food being a conduit for these memroies.
All recipes were collected, compiled into a zine and mailed to participants a month after the event.
You Are What You Eat (2025)
A collaboration served by the Transformation, Love and Care (T.L.C.) Collective in an effort to combine aspects of identity through a dinner party setting. The project was rooted in the collective’s (Adela Cardona, Gwen Hoeffgen, Dominic Toliver and Sarah Luu) shared memories of deep positive connection through food as a playful vessel.
Guests were welcomed to the event through an invitation where they were instructed to bring 3 ready-to-eat ingredients that make up who they are. Upon arrival, they were seated by their host (Olivia DelGandio) and paired with a fellow participant where they discuss the items they had brought. Afterwards, ingredients were exchanged with their partner and they made food portraits of each other. A menu of guiding questions were provided to help guide the participants through the event and conversations.
When the food portraits were completed, participants then were instructed to consume their own portrait made by their partner.
Elementary Democracy in Session: Notes on Civics from Elementary School Students in Oregon (2025)
For CA077: Oregon State Capitol Percent for Art K-8 Youth Community Project, prepared by Lisa Jarrett and co-managed by Gwen Hoeffen and Sarah Luu
A process-based social practice artwork where children research democracy and use this learning to activate dynamic, living conversations with a diverse cross-section of Oregonians. It is a collaborative exercise in experiential learning that offers windows into the thinking and interests of some of Oregon’s youngest citizens. The student participants are also educators-in-residence, who are generational experts. Working in collaboration with a team of students, teachers, and supporting artists who are part of the ongoing project KSMoCA, a contemporary art museum inside Dr MLK Jr Elementary School in NE Portland. Lead artist, Lisa Jarrett, will build an immersive experience around democracy with and for the youth community that can be shared with educators across the state. The project exists independently from KSMoCA’s regularly scheduled exhibition schedules and visiting artist program. [This description was written by Lisa Jarrett.]
Music
+Memory (2024)
A quick project made with people in Portland, Oregon made over the span of 2-3 weeks. Sunbmissions were collected from an open survey and participants were asked to submit a song associated with a cherished (or not so cherished) memory. The responses chosen for the zine were ones that stood out the most.
The songs from every submission were logged into a shared spotify playlist, which you can access here. :]