For Chez Derriere’s final project, Food Futures, the gallery will function as an explorative art restaurant for two nights. Join us for a meal, to celebrate, discuss and imagine the future of food with this group of inspiring collaborators and artists.
For Food Futures: Local Harvest, on 2 December, artists and designers Adam Ben-Dror, Chris Berthelsen and Rebecca Swan will be imagining a collaborative and sustainable future, where food production is localised and driven by communities. Join us at Chez Derriere for a banquet of fresh produce sourced from backyards, abandoned parking lots and local community gardens.
The vegetarian meal will be served on wood-fired ceramic serving plates (made at Wood Fired Pottery School) and eaten with handmade cutlery, lit by lights made from foraged materials and discarded electronics and powered by old car batteries. Rebecca Swan will be presenting an immersive video installation and will be talking about ideas around the living soil web and compost.
The following event, Food Futures: Kai Māori, on 8 December (please note date change due to illness), journalist and food researcher Charlotte Muru-Lanning (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato Tainui, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei) and chef and wine-maker Matua Murupaenga (Ngāti Kurī, Ngāti Kahu) will host a dinner to explore what kai Māori is and imagine what its future could be. The collaborative menu will feature jelly inspired by pūrākau, native ingredients, and wine from Matua and Imogen Weir’s (Ngāi Tahu) Māori natural wine label Tawhiti.
Both events are now fully booked.
About the artists and collaborators
Adam Ben-Dror
Adam Ben-Dror is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and inventor based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. With Xin Cheng he co-runs Local Making, a neighbourhood-scaled laboratory for living and making together amongst the more-than-human Anthropocene. Adam teaches design at the University of Auckland and is a facilitator with the Compost Collective. He studied fine arts at the University of Auckland, design at Victoria University Wellington and robotics at Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, USA.
Chris Berthelsen
Chris Berthelsen likes to explore environments for creative activity, resident-led modification of the everyday environment, and alternative education(s). He is based in Tāmaki Makaurau and often runs multi-layered public projects throughout Aotearoa and Japan which experiment with public/private space, Making Friends, working in public, trust and hope, and making-do with resources at hand. He is a co-founder of Activities and Research in Environments for Creativity Trust (Tāmaki Makaurau) and Tanushimaru Institute for Art Research (Fukuoka, Japan), and was Deputy-Chairperson, of the Mairangi Arts Centre Trust (Tāmaki Makaurau) (2017-2021).
Rebecca Swan
Rebecca Swan is a photographer, video artist and soil geek based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She is co-founder of Growing Point, a research education and innovation hub where they grow soil, food and community, from their base at Dignan St Community garden in Point Chevalier. Swan’s work has been published, exhibited and collected in Aotearoa and internationally. She won the S+ART award and in 2018 was awarded the Fulbright Visual Artists NZ Scholar Award.
Charlotte Muru-Lanning
Charlotte Muru-Lanning (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato Tainui, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei) is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based journalist and food researcher. She is a staff writer at The Spinoff and edits their weekly food newsletter The Boil Up. Charlotte is especially interested in how the food we eat (or don't eat) in our everyday lives links to identity, place, work and whakapapa. She is currently undertaking a Masters focused on Indigenous data sovereignty and kai Māori groups on Facebook at The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato.
Matua Murupaenga
Matua Murupaenga (Ngāti Kurī, Ngāti Kahu) is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based chef and winemaker. He’s worked at a number of local restaurants including Pici, Ooh-Fa and Roses Dining Room. Alongside his partner Imogen Weir (Ngāi Tahu) he has created Tawhiti, a Māori natural wine label.